#I firmly think it shouldn't exist but I don't think it's reasonable to consider it like. Our main priority

[sharkface]

so what then its ok that paw patrol exists? is this just a way of saying "let people enjoy things" for you orrrrr

[dairy-farmer]

hope my question doesn't sound so awful, i'm curious, when it comes to you and your ships like BruTim and etc., would you consider yourself a proshipper?

it's not! don't worry!

i consider myself very firmly anti-censorship which means that i am very firmly proship.

i know that there has been an attempt at changing the meaning of proshipping by people trying to cast it in a bad light because if you control the definition of something then you basically control all future arguments. (interestingly it's anti shipping that is the reason for pro ship's existence. livejournal was full of people telling others that their ships were gross and launching crusades against ships they hated calling themselves "anti-x-ship". pro, the opposite of anti, emerged to show as a symbol that you weren't an asshole. a lot of proshippers don't like or even approve of all ships but they believe you shouldn't get targeted and harassed for something as stupid as a ship essentially)

proshipping is something that i agree with not only for the anti-censorship aspects, it's also the finer details

1) your fictional interests are not a reflection of your irl beliefs

2) that harassment, doxing, and threats are not a logical or stable reactions to seeing something you don't like

3) fiction is not what influences reality it is interpretation of fiction that does (you were already a bad person if something you saw on tv or read in a book made you violent or do something depraved etc)

i've been lurking in fandom for a long time and i've noticed a trend with antis that have shaped a very low opinion of them because of the glaringly clear political agenda so many antis appear to have. there's been a rise in 'anti rhetoric' that pretty closely coincides with the rise in american alt-right movements and this is no different because it's people being radicalized by the exact same pipeline. anti's, right wing, q-anon people, etc say (oftentimes line for line) the EXACT same arguments.

arguments that tend to be anti women and anti lgbtq+

i realize indoctrination is hard to spot especially if you're young, vulnerable, or its being said by someone you look up to. but there are two things to keep in mind when you think about all the claims and stances antis make.

is the claim outlandish or incredibly bold? such as saying that people who like lolicon or make nsfw art of underaged characters are pedophiles. that is a VERY serious accusation and people online say it like its nothing. when you understand the full depravity of a crime like pedophilia there is ABSOLUTELY no way you could ever equate drawings of a fictional character to a living breathing child.

who benefits from you believing those claims?

-you ever wonder why ao3 writers who are majority queer women in their mid 20s tend to be baselessly accused of pedophilia? even though the profile of a pedophile in the USA is of a middle-aged white man in their 30s-40s? if we wanted to characterize fandoms by most likely to have pedophiles i'd be eyeing the nascar and sports fandoms given their fan basis fit the profile better.

did you know referring to queer people as pedophiles is a very age old tactic of eliminating public support or sympathy for them. look up 'boys beware' a 1955 PSA directed at boys to help protect them from the "sick" "pedophiles" known as the homosexuals.

-you ever wonder why antis claim to be "for the children" and yet use terms like 'cp' when referring to real children?

did you know RAINN has stated the proper term to use is CSAM-child sexual abuse materials. because 'child' and 'porn' cannot be used in the same sentence? fundamentally "(often) pornography online depicts adults who have consented to be filmed, that’s never the case when the images depict children". you'd think someone who cares so much for real children would get that.

-you ever wonder why so many antis rally for censorship on ao3 and cite the overnight mass deletion and censorship of fanworks from livejournal as proof of something that occurred because there was too much "cp" on the cite?

did you know it was it the 'warriors for innocence' who were behind not just livejournal but issues with other fansites and who directly stated their goal was to "hunt down people who support homosexuality, pedophilia and incest" and who have very clear ties to dominionism, and "Christian Patriot" militias?

do you notice how that's exactly what antis today say about "proshitters" just without the 'homosexuality' part because that part is being whispered since they know being homophobic within fandoms who are en mass queer would lose them a lot of support?

the anti and proship structure is a very american creation because it was born on forums mainly populated by americans and its only recently that this has started affecting overseas fandoms. recently on twitter a LOT of japanese artists have started referring to themselves as proshippers and blocking anyone who has 'antiship' in their description box because proship is the default for basically everywhere else that doesn't have american theocratic conservative powerplays.

maybe being an anti started as being an asshole but that's no longer the case. it's no longer just about "i hate this ship" its becomes "i hate this ship because ive fallen into an alt-right pipeline to appeal to the young future conservative and so fiction is real and you, a dirty fucking queer, are a pedophile, rapist, molester!!!!'

all you have to do to see a grown up politically involved "anti" is to turn on an american news station and watch the debate about banning library books that contain "explicit material" like things related to critical race theory or homosexuality. because that's what an anti evolves into. that's what all indoctrinated conservatives evolve into.

so the anti objectives and alignments have very firmly changed to something i will never respect or side with.

i think that an old article about WFI can summerize what i think is happening with modern antishipping and a changing political climate:

and if by chance an anti has somehow read this far: u were lied to girl. they knew you were a sucker and desperate for online connection or to be part of the "young activist" wave. but you were easy to trick and they filled your head with lies to help them push the christian conservative agenda that women dont deserve autonomy and gay people are depraved freaks who should all die.

"No mistake should be made here: these people are not so much about stopping pedo's, they are about erecting and establishing a hate filled theocratic society by any means necessary. They are all about control. And they are firmly entrenched in the belief that they are "more right" than anyone else"

[lokisknife]

¶Welcome to New York – Loki Odinson

Summary: Everyone got a red string around their pinky that leads to their soulmate... Well, everyone but Y/N, that got a golden line that goes straight up.

Word count: 4.7k

Warnings: not sticking to cannon; 2012! Loki; cursing; mentions of sickness; me bullying the shit of Loki (I love him that's okay); one sex joke; angst

Author's note: yes I'm naming all of my fanfics after Taylor Swift songs. Yes, I could have named it "invisible string" but it's too obvious. Also the original was just so long (up to 6k words) so I decided to split this in two, so I'm posting it vvvery soon.

Tony's version.

Liked my writing? Consider donating on Ko-fi!

Gif's not mine.

Since the beginning of human life on Earth, there have been records of the existence of invisible strings (at least to the general population regarding the strings of others) that connect two people that are fated to be together. The Mesopotamians, Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and many other folks had countless myths that served the purpose of explaining why that happened: some people said that these so-called soulmates were made of the same clay, the same stardust or maybe they were created as one singular soul that got split in two. The skeptics firmly believed that "soulmate strings" could be collective hallucinations induced by pheromones that persisted since prehistory, but the fact that everyone had a special someone was undeniable.

Whatever the reason, everyone in the whole world that ever existed has or had a red string on their pinky finger that led straight to their soulmate. Still, no religion, philosophy, or science could explain why Y/N was different than anyone else. As a kid, every visit to the doctor's office was accompanied by a complaint about their soulmate string that - quoting by the then 6 years old Y/N - "worked wonkily": they have learned about red strings that lead to your future spouse in school, but their own string was golden and pointed straight up, just like a helium balloon. Uncountable health professionals claimed they have never seen something like that, but it shouldn't be a reason to worry: soulmate's strings have never malfunctioned before, so it wasn't possible. Well, they hoped at least.

Not only the doctors but every person Y/N ever encountered commented on the golden circle around their finger (that being the only visible part of the string by third parties) and close friends even joked about their soulmate being a deity or an alien. Y/N always laughed and was considered to be someone with a good sense of humor regarding their own problems, but the truth is that all the remarks about their condition ached like a stab on a previously infected wound. The whispering and bewildered looks people shared when staring at Y/N's hands were a highly effective reminder of the possibility of a loveless life. Sure, they did not have an entirely loveless life: they had friends, family, hobbies, and many sources of joy. But the love they felt for life when looking at a puppy at a park couldn't compare to dancing in the rain with someone you fancy. The love they felt for life when buying pretty flowers for their nightstand was nothing next to cuddling in bed past noon.

Experts didn't have a clue about what was going on with their soulmate or the lack thereof – or even "Schrodinger's soulmate" as Y/N called it – but they couldn't put a stop to their running thoughts. As they spent their whole life thinking about it, they couldn't help but feel special: every single individual had an "other half" but them. Maybe their string pointing to absolutely fucking nowhere was Universe's way of saying "hey Y/N, you don't deserve love, maybe next time!".

Y/N observed their string that pointed at the sky as they walked to work, imagining how it would be to witness life with someone else's eyes. How does the world present itself with a vibrant red string that resembled a treasure map, in which the X represented the most wonderful feeling a human can feel? The girls that shared candies on a bench, the guy that served their coffee, and the receptionist of the building, all of them had the assurance of following a straight path to their lovers if they wished to. They all knew they could be loved and cherished and kissed on the spots they were most insecure about. They knew the person they were destined to spend their whole life with was safe somewhere. But Y/N knew they could marry the atmosphere, for what was possible.

The newly graduated scientist decided to put a stop to their introspections on frivolous matters like love – of course, this being a total facade they presented to people to seem unbothered by it – and focus on their obligations for the day. After spending years burning every single brain cell on difficult equations and acquiring student debt of the size of the moon, one could imagine that being an astrophysicist would be more glamorous: planetariums, telescopes, discovering new galaxies. Sure, someone who works at a fancy university, NASA, or Stark Industries could have all of that, but not Y/N. Don't get me wrong, Y/N was very grateful for their job, but sometimes they wondered if the right choice was made by trading the big companies of space-related technology to learn with the genius Dr. Erik Selvig.

Working with the Swedish scientist promised never-ending knowledge of Einstein-Rosen bridges and many other wonders of theoretical physics. Still, it said expectations were instead met with long lists of required research on nordic myths. Jane and Darcy already explained in detail all their discoveries of the past year when Thor - yes, the god and Foster's boyfriend, as crazy as it may seem - appeared out of nowhere in New Mexico and changed all humanity's knowledge of the universe forever and of course, as someone new on the field, Y/N found it very exciting. Even as a newbie, they were curious and capable as everyone else on the team, so reading borrowed dusty books about old deities felt like a waste of potential.

They trusted the professor with their life, but since the god of thunder made a special appearance on Earth, he has gone a little bit...lunatic, for a lack of better wording that could sugarcoat the actual state of his mind. Working with him on day to day basis made Y/N feel like a coadjuvant on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: in one second the blonde concentratedly wrote equations of the highest difficulty related to multiverse theories on the whiteboard, and in the other, he was shouting nonsense about Asgard, Midgard and hidden knowledge on the old texts; what bring to Y/N and the infinite paper stack on their table.

Okay, to be fair, Y/N would be lying if they said that they absolutely hated this part of the job, as it was much more entertaining than getting hot-headed over seemingly dead-end physics equations. Reading everything from the genesis of Asgard to its imminent end at Ragnarok and every single character that existed in the between, the scientist couldn't help but choose favorites. Their colleagues, Darcy, Selvig, and mostly Jane drooled when talking about Thor, his magic hammer, and long blonde locks. Even though Y/N could feel he was a nice guy and all, their attention was focused on his younger, quieter brother.

The stories put bad lighting on Loki Odinson, describing him as a mischievous, trickster, egocentric person but the feelings transpassed to them was of so much compassion that their heart must as well explode when reading about him. Yes, he was the God of Mischief and was always creating chaos in his realm, but couldn't you understand his motives? Just imagine how it must felt like growing up in his older brother's shadow, with every single person - including your own father - diminishing his achievements to magnify Thor's popularity even more! Well, everyone's entitled to have an opinion, and Y/N thinks raven hair is nicer than golden and magic is more interesting than muscles. Simple as that.

The scientist's head started to pound heavily, their eyes burning holes inside their skull and their stomach was sick to the point it felt like it was turning somersaults, as it always did when they spent way too much time curled over all the parchment covered-in dust obsessing over Loki - disguised by scientific research, of course. The whole week went like this and Y/N always downed some medicine down their throat and continued to work hard, but the migraines were getting stronger every day. Complaining to themselves about how the ache in their temples made it so hard to focus and form coherent trains of thought, they glanced at the clock on the wall. Only one hour and a half left of the work journey, good enough.

They quickly organized their table and talked to Dr. Erik, who, despite his urgency in advancing the research, was very comprehensive. So, work: check. Next step: finding a pharmacy while trying to not throw up from all the pain. Good thing Y/N lives in New York City and there are stores everywhere you set your sight on...and if they couldn't hold back the vomit, it's not like people are going to judge them so much right? C'mon, it's NY, at least it wasn't going to be that unusual of a thing.

As an astrophysicist and Dr. Erik Selvig's favorite intern to pile work on, they didn't have enough time or money to go to the hospital to get every "stupid symptom" checked. Y/N felt like dying, sure, but you and I know that no matter the illness, they would step out of the doctor's office with a flu diagnosis. So the smartest decision is, obviously, to get medicine for all the wrong stuff going on in their body. Only relaxing from all the rush of trying to not puke, faint, or cry from the headache when handing the cashier their debit card, the sight of their own hand hits them like a brick.

How great is the human mind and all of its levels of complexity, its delicate and intricate gears allowing conscient, external responses to subconscious perceptions. The golden thread, the subject of most of their worries that would otherwise be constant in its position, was leading somewhere out of the door. Their heart dropped, focusing on the inviting leaded path, their queasiness becoming just an annoying thought at the back of their mind. The string changing wasn't even an option for them, that being such an impossible scenario that Y/N didn't ever fantasize about it. They always took for a fact that they didn't have a soulmate, so the line basically pulling them towards someone was absolutely dumbfounding.

Tucking the meds under their arm, they ran after the thread feeling like a kid expecting to meet a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Y/N didn't know what to expect: to be honest, they didn't even know if they weren't hallucinating. Did their soulmate string lag all these years? Was their soulmate an older astronaut, who spent all of Y/n's life in space? Or worse, what if their soulmate were just born and they would have to wait decades to meet them? God, that's so weird, they sure fucking expected that they weren't running after a hospital or something like that. Wait, what if their soulmate was dead and some crazy scientist resurrected them?

Their head, still throbbing from the pain, spun in circles just like their thoughts. What if, what if, what if? Just what ifs, no plans, no logic, no focus. Their head was so full of "what ifs" that were no room for other feelings than concern. Having an abnormal soulmate thread resulted in so much pain their whole life but the worries that came with the scenario of finally having someone were nothing that Y/N ever heard of. The path could be leading to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the creepiest forest to encounter Frankenstein's monster himself, and the only thought crossing their mind would be: does he like me?

Quietly thanking the Universe or whoever was in charge, Y/N sighed in relief when the string pointed to a large crowd on a busy street. It would be awful to find their one when there were dozens of people gathered together, but at least they could be sure that they weren't destined for Michael Myers hiding in the woods. The scientist takes a deep breath in order to calm down their soulmate-induced panic and looks around to form a tactical plan, but instead of locking eyes with a handsome someone, they met terrified looks. No one batted an eye at the astrophysicist, their wide eyes locked on something - or someone - way far ahead of them, their bodies frozen in place, unsure of every movement. New York, the city that never sleeps, whose streets were always booming with movement, fell dead silent. But no, Y/N couldn't call a uber from work and go straight home, they absolutely had to waltz themselves into this mess. Way to go, Y/N, what a great way to read the room.

Even though the little devil at their shoulder begged for them to tiptoe their way out, their feet seemed glued to the floor. They were completely clueless about what was happening and what they could and could not do. C'mon, you're a scientist, you work for one of the smartest men alive, you can work out some solution for this shit. Looking around again, they choose the youngest person in a three-foot circle, praying that this choice reflected a lesser possibility of being ridiculously rude to them - considering that absolutely no one dared utter a word - and nudged at a 17-ish boy's shoulder. Shooting him an apologetic look, Y/N mouthed a "what's happening?".

"I just got here like 10 minutes ago, but at the front is a very creepy weird dude with an even creepier scepter with blue lighting on it and he is shouting at us because he wants to be king or some shit like that. I thought he was just an anime nerd who thinks he is god because he is wearing really weird clothes, but looks like he is using magic to control people? That's all I know". He let it out in only one breath, in a voice barely above a whisper. "I'm so tired of living in New York man, I thought we were done after the Iron Monger/Obadiah Stane mess in 2009. All these weirdos wandering around... If I survive, I'm moving to California".

Y/N answered with a discrete smile. Okay, five minutes ago they were trying to convince themselves that they are smart and capable of making clever decisions but, for the first time in forever, they had hope. What horrible timing to finally meet their soulmate in a hostage situation by a (probably) Reddit user who thinks he is superior because he watched American Psycho a bazillion times and could pull off some magic tricks, and honestly, it's a shame that Y/N didn't give a single fuck to their plans. Their soulmate string was pointing to someone, the weirdo's superiority complex could wait, I guess. Passing through the crowd as they followed the golden path as if they were trying to get the best spot at a Taylor Swift concert at Madison Square Garden, they were increasingly ahead of the crowd. If they did have a soulmate, their soulmate was sure dumb to be that close to the psychopathic geek.

Now, in literally the middle of this mess, Y/N could see the wannabe-villain face and... This is so embarrassing. The teen's description was right but didn't do justice. The man had an unusual style, yes, but in an almost theatrical manner. A golden horned helmet lay on top of his long dark hair and framed his face perfectly, the contrasting colors making the man even paler, contributing to an eerie, power-hungry king look. Even though Y/N never laid eyes on someone like him before, he looked familiar: like an old childhood friend, an actor in a play you once saw, or someone you met in a dream. The type of memory that is stored in the back of your mind you can't quite make it hit the surface. Despite the situation - if you can ignore it - he looked beautiful. His power was mesmerizing and they couldn't look anywhere else. The man didn't sense their stare and continued his speech, which Y/N didn't catch the start of.

"Kneel before me" He shouted, some people in the crowd obeying his command. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state?"

The astrophysicist rolled their eyes and stood still on their feet. He was gorgeous, but it's no excuse to kneel... Well, his act was absurd and he didn't pay for dinner beforehand, so at least not tonight. The man up front opened his arms, his big gestures reflecting his big ego.

Y/N felt a slight pull on their string, reminding them that they were there for a reason, they had a purpose to fulfill. They didn't have a clue about how the thread worked, but maybe their soulmate got ahead of them in the crowd and tried to get their attention. Maybe their soulmate wanted Y/N to make the first move, maybe they were in a spot where they couldn't move that much. Jesus, the astrophysicist knew for a fact that purposefully being knee-deep into this shit was a dumb move, but you always could be...dumber, that's the word to describe it. Maybe common sense fell out of their bag at the drug store, being that the last place they have seen it. So, breathing heavily from the anticipation, Y/N squeezed their way closer to the front.

No one in the crowd struggled to maintain them farther away, complying rather quickly with their efforts, keeping their eyes glued to the golden thread afraid if they blinked, it may change again. Searching for their one was the main focus, the only thought on their head, the concentration was so great that Y/N slightly stumbled on their feet when the mass of bodies that prevented them from walking freely disappeared. Nothing obstructed their view, the path was clear. No frightened people, just the granite floor, the man, and the golden string connecting them.

His full image in front of Y/N made everything fall in place, as it is scary as one may think of this situation. A character that fell out of an old book, the raven hair that reflected the light of the buildings around among with his golden horns, the mischief of his eyes, and the scepter holding into what the scientist recognized as the Tesseract not only hinted but confirmed his identity. Loki of Asgard surely wasn't on Earth as part of Odinson's family trip.

They felt stupid. They should have felt this before based on their actions tonight, yes, but they felt stupid. And anxious. And scared, so scared. But, most of all, stupid, because everything seemed so predictable now. Fate, an arch-nemesis, played the game beautifully in leading Y/N in this time and place. Inexplicable hyper fixation on Laufey's son and his story, the pounding head, and the knot on their stomach while even thinking about him this week. Intuition, premonition, gut feeling. The abnormal string was actually pointing to the right place, doing its best to lead to another reality realm. If Y/N's friends had a penny for every time they joked about how one of them was destined to a deity... they would have one penny and a crazy story.

"It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity". Loki didn't seem to notice either the thread or the dumbfounded Y/N.

As soulmate strings, the question "why do humans cry when they feel strong emotions?" has been raised tirelessly from the beginning of time. Even though it's way out of their research field, the subject did also fascinate Y/N, who learned on research that, up to the 1600s, the prevailing theory was that all sentiments heated the heart, consequently generating water vapor that would escape from our eyes. In modern days we know that this belief it's invalid, but they couldn't feel like it didn't have some truth in it. As their eyes watered and their vision became blurry, disappointment, anger, and nonconformity rose in their heart and heated their chest.

On Soulmates 101 you don't really learn what to do in this type of situation. Sure, there are cute stories about soulmates who absolutely hated each other when they met, soulmates who were so different that they both thought that it was a mistake, and so on. But being fated to a God who happens to be enslaving Earth's population as a boost of ego... well, that's a first. Not that Y/N isn't used to having problems about their destiny.

Learning so much about Loki in the past months made them sympathize with him. Understand his motives, understand his personality, and understand his background. Understand, at least to the surface level, who he is. But this is too far. Mischievous tricks and pranks on the Asgardian royal family were a classic move, but this? Plotting a cartoony evil plan to be the king of the world? And all of that on a Friday night when a hot shower and a warm bed are waiting for them back home?

"You were made to be ruled". He went on with his megalomaniacal speech, making a pause and looking around, checking if he got the impact he was waiting for. His vision set a stop on Y/N. Their eyes locked for a beat of time that seemed like an eternity, sharing an unspoken understanding, knowing that wasn't the time or place. His eyes, marked in craziness, soften for a minute. He breathes shakily, fully filling his lungs. As he dry swallows, only the scientist ahead of the crowd gets a glimpse of a frightened, destroyed man. "in the end...you will always...kneel".

Should they do something? Could they do something? But, do what? Was it even logical to scream at the top of their lungs, begging him to stop, like the lame white love interest of an action movie who keeps saying "babe, stop! You're not like this!" in the middle of a fight scene? But who had the power to change his mind if not his soulmate? God, this isn't fair at all. Most people meet their soulmate at 20-something in a coffee shop and spend their whole lives happily together. But here is Y/N, debating internally if they should stop their meant-to-be (whose existence wasn't known up to 40 minutes ago) from being a tyrannical king. Not fair at all.

A sudden loud noise behind their back put a stop to their thoughts, the crowd splitting in half like the red sea in order to let its source walk freely to Loki. Like a god ex machina, red, white, and blue came into their vision: Captain America stood tall and confident, loud footsteps from his heavy boots contrasting with the sepulchral silence. Relief and panic washed over the scientist a the same time, like an electric shock right into their nervous system.

"You know" he annunciated "The last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing".

"The soldier" Loki chuckled, the laugh didn't meet his eyes. Y/N felt like the mass stopped breathing at the same time as an individual living organism. "The man out of time".

"I'm not the one who's out of time".

With that and the aircraft that unexpectedly appeared in the night sky, pointing a machine gun toward Loki, hell breaks loose. The scientist's head spun like it was part of Disney World's Mad Tea Party, the previously quiet and submissive mass of people running around, bumping into their body uncontrollably. Their shoulders ached, but their legs stood glued to the floor like blocks of concrete - Y/N thought they deserved to know what happens to their soulmate after all this time. Police ushered them to run to a safe spot, but their eyes were glued to the fight happening just a few feet away.

Loki shooted a blast of blue lightning from the tesseract at the aircraft, which maneuvered just in time for Captain America to throw his shield at the Asgard prince. Y/N's throat felt tight, wanting to scream "watch out!" but knowing it wasn't the right thing to do. The right thing to do was to run away as soon as the avengers showed up to save the day. The right thing to do was to not follow the golden thread to this mess. The right thing to do was to focus on the job and not spend hours reading about nordic old myths. The right thing to do was to take a better-paying, less interesting workplace. Maybe, the right thing to do was to never leave their bed until soulmates are not real anymore.

The golden thread that linked them together jumped in place with Loki's movements as he battled with Steve Rogers, fists meeting flesh, scepter meeting shield. The metallic sound of the clashing, the grunts, and the screams muffled Y/N's hard breathing, trying to contain their sobs, keeping their tears at bay. The world didn't care about their feelings, didn't care if they would ever get their happily ever after.

Their movements are way too fast and complex for someone out of the fight to comprehend, the violence looking like a choreographed waltz, the sirens sounding like an orchestra. The God of Mischief threw the soldier to the ground, swatting the bright collared shield away. Standing tall over the blonde, he grabbed the scepter tighter, pointing to the sharp end of the blue helmet. Y/N knew Rogers's abilities were extensive and he wasn't a hostage to his gadgets, but it was also part of their knowledge that Loki was a powerful sorcerer. But it was impossible for a newbie astrophysicist to know for a fact who would win in a battle between a deity and an enhanced super-human.

It felt so useless, discussing between doing what is right or doing what feels right when both weren't even an option. They were destined to be together and there was nothing Y/N could do: their presence and the presence of the next person were the same in this situation. The golden line wrapped around their finger stared back at its owner almost in mockery - the couple has never been so close, but the scientist has never been so unhopeful, even when they didn't even know about his existence. They surrendered to the gut-wrenching feeling that rose from the pit of their stomach, spreading like oil on a lake, making everything darker, lifeless, polluted.

The memory of the pull of the string by Loki's gesticulation flashed in Y/N's mind. They had as much understanding on soulmate threads as a kindergarten kid, only knowing the theoric part and having no experience whatsoever, but perhaps, just perhaps, they could do something. Y/N watched attentively, heart in hand. Not what they wanted to do, no, but what they should do. If what they wanted to do was on the table, they would have cried out to the raven-haired man, begging for explanations, the moment they set their eyes on him. But, who cares about what Y/N wanted? They had moral obligations, that sat above everything else.

"Please, let this work" the astrophysicist muttered. They rolled their wrist, grabbing the invisible thread like a rope in a Tug of War game, yanking it down in hopes of controlling the other side's movements like a ventriloquist.

Much to his surprise, Loki's hand falls, the scepter falling on the floor. The Captain didn't demonstrate his confusion at the prince's sudden change of behavior but took advantage of it, getting out of his passive stance and forcing Loki to the ground. Their team got him cornered while a policeman finally lost his patience with Y/N, grabbing them by the waist and forcing them out of the scene. Both were being talked to, but the scientist couldn't discern any words out of the cop's ramble even if their life depended on it.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I had to. I'm so sorry, I didn't want to" Y/N struggled to get the words out, their throat hurt from the contained sobs from before. Now, they didn't have any reasons — or strength — to fight their emotions. They sobbed like a child, the tears feeling like waterfalls, a powerful unstoppable force of nature. They knew that Loki couldn't hear them, but they hoped he could understand their motives.

His ice-blue eyes stared at Y/N, not showing any emotion. Just a stony, indifferent stare.

[666writingcafe]

It's Dinnertime

I know I ought to be celebrating the success of the speech with everyone else, but all I can think about is Levi. I've not seen him, I've not received any texts from him, and I haven't seen any of his social media accounts update all day. If I had my way, we'd be conducting a search party right now, but I seem to be the only one that has any concern about Levi's wellbeing at the moment. So, I have no choice but to go through the motions and pretend to be having a good time. After all, Satan claims that his brother's holed up in his room, playing a new game he bought for himself, which should imply that he's safe.

Still, shouldn't I have heard something from him by now?

I slowly eat the food on my plate as Lucifer and Satan start impersonating each other. Once everyone else realizes that the two are only pretending to still be in each other's bodies, laughter fills the air. Only two people don't join in: myself, and Diavolo, who's turned to look at me. He's smiling, but his eyes look concerned.

"What's on your mind, MC?" he asks. "This is a celebration, and yet you look blue. It seems as though you and Lucifer have switched bodies, because I've never seen him look so relaxed."

"I assure you, nothing of the sort has occurred," I tell him, trying to keep a civil tone.

"You know, Lucifer told me that you've been a big help these last few days."

"Has he?" Diavolo nods his head.

"Clearly we made the right choice selecting you to come to the Devildom as our exchange student."

"I'm not so sure about that. I think I've spent more time getting caught up in drama than actually learning about the Devildom. I don't even get how you ended up choosing me, anyway. I'm not that special." Diavolo's face grows serious at the sound of my words.

"Even though I wasn't actually the one who chose you, I can tell you that you've proven to be more special than any of us would have imagined."

"Then who did?"

"Lucifer, of course. Out of the huge stack of papers listing countless candidates for the program, he picked you. I simply gave my approval, that's all."

"Then it was pure chance. There's no way the Avatar of Pride would go out of his way to pick me when there were more qualified candidates that could have easily had my spot."

"What do you consider your accomplishments here then, MC?"

"I didn't think luck, manipulation, and possession were considered accomplishments, Lord Diavolo."

"I believe that all of us have a mission in life. Mine is to bring progress and stability to the Devildom, the Celestial Realm, and the human world. Something happened once, something that made me firmly believe that." He pauses. "It's possible that your mission in life is to influence Lucifer and his brothers in some way."

"To help you with your goal, in other words."

"Hopefully, yes. I believe that such influence would be beneficial to them." I excuse myself and head out to one of the restaurant balconies. It's better for everyone involved if I put some distance between myself and Diavolo. I can't believe that he believes that the only reason I exist is to be of service to him. Just because that happens to be the fate of Lucifer and Barbatos doesn't mean that it's going to be mine.

[2n2n]

2n-2n San Do you think hanako kun is a mentally unstable person i think he is BCS he always act weird his mood changes for no reason and he even tried to kill kou kun without teru's help i'm sure he was going to kill him and many other things i don't feel like writing them because i'm too lazy :') and tank you for doing your best in this blog 💖💖💖

wow! Do you dislike that fine handsome boy, Amane? You know, this is actually a place of love for Amane!

....but hmmm well, sure, he's unstable! And yet, isn't that just his most charming point? Seeing emotions pour out from Amane, slip through the cracks of his poorly-managed facade, ahh, it invigorates, doesn't it? Don't you want to see him lose it, over and over and over? Don't you want to see what happens? Don't you want to know what Amane wants? If he was stable, we'd never know a thing, he'd lock it all behind a solid metal door! Thank goodness everything slips out of him uncontrollably!

There is nothing better than a boy who oscillates between crushing shame and guilt, and divine resolution! Personally, I think Amane should have all the power in the world to do anything he ever wants ever!

soo handsome!!

Unstable, you say? Emotionally compelling, I say! If Amane wants to feel happy or sad or angry, who are we to stop him? He should feel whatever he feels to the fullest! He should move whoever or whatever he has to, 'til he feels better!

you know, I think Hanako himself agrees with you, that he's unstable! I think Hanako himself agrees with you, that he shouldn't be allowed to do whatever he'd like, and that what he wants and is inclined to do, is quite dangerous! Hmmmm... he doesn't trust himself at all! Amane knows best that he shouldn't be allowed to exist freely, that he's best kept in chains! Anyone arguing otherwise.... Amane wouldn't agree with them!

In fact, I think that seal on his cheek, limiting his power, and his passive acceptance of it, is further proof that there is an Amane that he doesn't want us to know! You know, AidaIro's even joked once that if the seal on Amane's cheek is removed, the world will fall into disarray....

♥

gosh, the Amane we know may even well be a muzzled beast! Delightful. You better love it too!

..... as for trying to kill Kou, I think you're wrong. I don't know that Hanako's knife actually works on living human beings quite like a normal knife. We don't know just yet how it works in the current canon, but in the pilot anyway, Hanako must have intention to stab through someone, and can simply make an imposing gesture....

...I also firmly believe Hanako was not stupid enough to kill The Minamoto Teru's brother. He knows who Teru is, he knows what attacking Kou would do to him. As good as a deathwish. I think Hanako was intending to make his little dramatic display, make Kou think twice about him, and then probably walk off with a smile and a message about kaii not being the same as human beings. A lesson. I think Teru jumped the gun and got aggro. I think Teru took it too far and too seriously. I don't think early series Hanako is actually cracked through enough to remotely behave murderously. Though we don't know wtf he was even thinking about the yorishiro and urabon so....

I mean ... in many ways, I think the murderous mindset for Hanako is intrinsically attached to devotion, love, commitment, thematically in a metatext way, and in a subconscious way in his fictional brain. If you think of the murder/shinjuu as something very sacred to Amane.... then the 'next time' can't be something frivolous or impulsive. You understand why he looks like this about having to consider it all.

.... and why it shares so much in common with this face.

..and why the processing emotions are similar

...you would be remiss to think of Hanako as a renegade, rogue murderer.

He is in fact a deeply calculating, deeply passionate, very personal murderer. I don't think he' waste the emotion or besmirch his own action through something as flippant or crude, as murdering Kou impulsively. I don't think murder can be impulsive for Amane.

[infizero]

I don't really understand the "who else could it be" question cause to me the next secret boss seems pretty obvious? The mention of DELTA RUNE is pretty standout but considering these cards feature the characters talking directly to us in general they're pretty firmly outside of canon. I do feel like knowing about DELTA RUNE could just be an advancement of the plot, since Jevil and Spamton seem to have weird knowledge they shouldn't already.

Also I feel like it'd be weird for Toby to make the text read like it could be Gaster in english but read nothing like Gaster in japanese. You gotta remember the japanese translation doesn't just exist to give us character hints through the way characters speak in japanese, it's for a different audience and Toby has to get across the same ideas to them. It'd be weird if we were supposed to assume this was Gaster but the japanese fans weren't given any reason to think that.

i agree! i definitely think now that its much more likely to not be gaster but someone associated with him, like a secret boss and/or someone like whoever the "FRIEND" in the basement was.

i will say however that the other valentines arent necessarily talking directly to us, in fact some of them are directed at certain people such as ralsei's letter to susie. nothing in them denotes them as being to us specifically. yes theyre obviously for us the fandom functionally but all of them in-universe could very easily be addressed to other in-universe ppl (tho one of ralsei's seems very likely directed to us..) the mystery one is the only one that HAS to be TO US in-universe because of the deltarune name drop.

i have a lot of thoughts about this letter, its many connections and possible explanations, but i'm saving them for the video i plan on making going over all this lol

[fishfem]

How did you realize you weren't really trans but a cis woman instead?? I've been on T for 6 months but i dunno, i got a qustioning itch

i didn't. i didn't ever realize i "wasn't trans". not trying to sound like i'm mad at you for phrasing it this way, i just want you to understand to whst degree it's like. a completely different mentality.

at the height of my naivety with trans theory (and i mean that literally, i was a child), i believe i was a man internally, and somehow the outside was irrelevant. but i acknowledged i was physically female. very much a souls approach.

but that changing happened before i detransitioned. pretty far before, when i simply started to question what that even meant. what makes a man? how could i internally be a man? if man is a concept capable of existing solely internal, what intangible concepts make it up? it falls apart really easily, because intangible concepts associated with men or women? that's just gender roles.

for a while, considerable, i considered myself something along the various lines of "dysphoric and afab, socially male" because these WERE accurate terms for my reality. but that bleeds into the next part. what made me trans one second while i still chose to stay transitioned, and not trans the next when i chose not to? because i did not go "i'm not trans anymore". "trans" as an identity is something you do. even as a self identity, you're identifying as it, it's an action. the feelings you feel, of being dysphoric, that you being a woman is wrong/being male is/would be right, those are not actions you are consciously taking. but it is encouraged by most to view those through the lens that these are part of and a reason to identify as trans.

at some point, i think that identity fell away from me. and that did not line up with when my dysphoria desisted, or when i finally chose to detransition. the whole time, i've simply continued.

even now, i pass as male 99.9% of the time because i simply exist comfortably. i'm no longer on t, but i wear comfortable work clothes and have a "mens haircut" because i like cuts i don't have to do anything for. i exist near exactly how i did while transitioned, the only difference being i no longer think this makes me not a woman. in fact, i think the fact that i do these things makes them very much the experiences of a woman, because by physical definition that is what i am. in the same way a male can never be a trans man, being a trans man is solely a female experience. but what i experience is not trans man only, either, because here i am no longer believing it is that way.

and when i say i pass, i don't mean "i wear vaguely masculine clothing and it tricks all the people who think short pixie cut without a dress has to be male". people from all political corners and whatnot don't realize i'm female. though, personally, i'd argue i'm actually just physically androgynous. and to be honest, i feel like my face is actually a little obvious in some ways. but the fact that i don't compensate for it puts me firmly, firmly in the male category for just about everyone i've ever met. but i shouldn't have to compensate for how i look just for people to realize my sex, so i don't.

and that's what it's come down to for me. i don't have to id as trans to be the way i am. i don't have to id as trans if i'm dysphoric. because you don't have to be trans to be a comfortable androgynous female. you don't have to be trans if you pass as male. you don't have to be trans if you are dysphoric. why are these things we see as signs of identifying as trans when there's nothing inherently trans about them?

plenty of women with no predisposition to identifying as trans can pass as male all the time. society is just set up to do that if youre vaguely androgynous and don't compensate for it with femininity.

plenty of women are dysphoric. plenty of women wish to be men, for any number of reasons, plenty of women hate their sexed parts, plenty of women do both. but in our social condition, of course there are women who feel this way. why would that be a sign they should identify as trans?

what does it mean to identify as trans?

to identify as trans is, in some way, to say that something about you is not something other female people can do unless they too identify as trans. whether that be have dysphoria, pass as male, etc.

but why? why can other female people not do that? because they can, and do. women throughout history have always been this way. trans identity is arguably new. wanting to be a man was not always paired with the same thoughts or accompanying decisions.

it's a social concept with no true bounds.

i don't play the definition game "you cant define it so it doesnt exist game" just for fun. i think it's arguably usually pointless. but in this case— i think it is important to highlight it because the idea that women cannot be this way (be or feel what trans men do) inherently feeds into identification as trans. so when it's not true, that women cannot be this way, i think that is important.

because what can you found being trans on then instead?

perhaps not the action of identity, but that of specific action. maybe the act of purposely passing as male— well, no. many women do that for safety. medical and legal transition are prone to the same pressure in that regard, but lets be kind and say these things are truly a trans only experience. as in, you are trans if you do these things. those who medically or legally transition are choosing to.. well. transition, and be trans. that is definable. that is something that women who don't intend to be trans don't do.

so now where does it begin and end? many trans identifying people don't intend to trandition medically and or legally. they are not trans then, with this concrete, truly trans only definition of being trans. and what if, someone stops taking t: theyre still identifying as trans, but they are no longer truly trans. the action separate from the choice of identity. is that right?

which matters more, the identity with no boundaries, or the concrete definable action? does it matter more for the definition to truly be applicable only to trans people, or is it okay that there is not actually a difference between those who are trans and those who aren't?

to answer your question, i chose to discard identifying as trans when it was no longer a useful lens for my dysphoria. however, i still consider myself to have Been Trans, since i identified as such, and if you define identity as the boundary, then i was truly trans. and if you define the concretr action as being trans, i stopped being trans when i tested going off hormones, and i'm not yet truly "un trans" because i still need to fix my passport.

but have i discernably changed? no.

the only definable changes are that i no longer choose to identify myself that way. and i no longer take t. and i have my papers mostly back in order so i can recieve appropriate healthcare.

but to the passing eye, to the average judge: there is no difference. there truly is none.

because i'm the same person, and this is still my experience that trans men share with me, a "cis woman", a detrans woman.

once you stop caring, you'll realize the boundary only existed because you cared that it did.

[thefairyletters]

NaruSaku Fanfics

I wouldn't say much – I love NaruSaku and I hate to see great works shadowed behind the piles of popular NS stories that I never have liked as much except for a few, which also I'll drop below in the list.

I'll update this list whenever I come across a story that I particularly enjoy or finds worth spreading word across. So be sure to like and reblog this post so you can revisit it to add new story in your reading pile later.

Also, genres vary and are not mentioned, but does it make any difference as long as the story is good?

Warning: super long post featuring beautiful, beautiful stories that you wouldn't regret reading. I swear. I'm positive. Contains SNS and other side pairings.

Without further ado;

How I fell in love with my best friend: Krapo || ff.net || M || complete

How the little blond boy Sakura had always known had changed, changing as well her feelings. The unfolding of their life, while Naruto worked to become the best Hokage and she faced her own emotions. Growing Love.

(I have nothing but upmost reverence for this story. This author writes one of the nest NS and I have loved all. NS is beautiful and Sakura is badass. Everything we already know is here and more.)

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Dangerous infiltration mission: Krapo || ff.net || M || complete

Naruto and Sakura are send by the Hokage for a difficult infiltration mission. They will have to face more than just the danger itself as they will have to keep their cover to be fake husband and wife credible. how it will impact the relationship between the two ninja. Growing Love. Misunderstanding.

(If you loved the aforementioned story, you'll love this one too. Mutual pining.)

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All over again: Krapo || ff.net || M || post-war || complete

Sasuke come back, Team seven is reunited. But Sakura has lost Naruto. How will she make him fall in love with her again? What other difficulties lies ahead of them?

(Naruto loses memory. SasuSaku angst but not in romantic sense and I loved it all. Misunderstanding and more mutual pining. And I'm in love with this story too.)

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Hit the floor running: Sakurablossom009 || A03 || M (but unnecessary) || Modern Hitman/Robbers AU || complete

Life was going great, Sakura thought. She was penniless, stranded in Europe without a way home, her fiancee had just dumped her for another woman AND her new companion was quite possibly a thief. How could things get any worse? Wait...was that guy pointing a gun at her?

(Now, personally, I don't prefer modern AU, but this story really had interesting characterisation and more character depth. NaruSaku is pretty spot on. It also features SasuHina and bamf!Hinata)

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The greatest pretenders: snowyseas || ff.net || M || Borutoverse || ongoing

Fifteen years is a long time to not talk to someone you consider your best friend, and is made even more difficult when they (and you) are married. The things Sakura should have confronted Naruto about never came to fruition, but as an old saying goes, "the truth will always be revealed".

(Your typical I-made-a-wrong-choice-but-now-can-be-done story but unlike many other stories in this they don't admit their love for each chapter at the first chapter itself. In fact, it feels so canon and you can almost superimpose it upon the canon. Sakura is mentally strong and knows what's right. )

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He was the sun: SavageTrickster || ff.net || T || Canonverse || ongoing

He had come a long way - from a lonely orphan ostracized by everyone to a loved hero. He deserved all these. His Hokage dream to come true. All the ramen he could eat. - Her eyes fell on a certain Hyuuga seated close enough for accidental touches. Her heart sank a little at a harsh whisper of reminder - And a deserving girl...who could give him all her love.

(So far so good. It's ongoing, and is at chapter 3. Sakura leaves Konoha much like how Naruto did, to explore the world aka seeing my headcanon in writing.)

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Wilderness: Kanji no Sakka || M || canondivergent || ongoing

As the war screeches to a temporary halt, Naruto leaves the battlefield on a unique mission only he can complete. Sakura is ordered to go with him. In the days that follow their bond is changed forever.

(Although I hate any explicit stories that involve characters below age 17, I give this a pass because of the uniqueness of plot and characterisation. It has fine lemons that comes with a good plot.)

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How It Should Have Been: OfPaintAndOil || ff.net || T || canon divergent || oneshot

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Sasuke was supposed to be the dark one, the unredeemable one. Naruto was the bright one, the good one. It wasn't supposed to be like this, with blood on his hands and glowing red eyes and a grin. Naruto was supposed to make everything better, and maybe he did, in the end, but Sakura had never expected the end to look quite like this.

(Featuring Yandere!Naruto. It leaves you wanting for more and is a fascinating read. It's dark themed so proceed with caution as your favorite character might or might not be dead.)

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The Best Dates are the Cheap Ones: Shivakashi || ff.net || T || post!Timeskip || Oneshot

The whole point was to get the best date; that meant the richest and classiest guy, right? Sakura realizes what she has taken for granted and Ino learns a lesson in value.

(Sakura learns her lesson and snatches her boy. InoNaru is worth noting. Not the best characterisation of Sakura but bear with her jealousy for that is the reason why NS fluff exists. Story itself is very light and entertaining.)

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mangoes and strawberries: ohthelinsanity || ff.net || T || postwar || oneshot

Sakura Haruno was elbow deep in Naruto Uzumaki's guts when he asked her to marry him. It was so not the right time. But she still said yes.

(This story just screams NS upon every single line. Diabetes warning. Too cute for this world. One of the best NS fluff I've read thus far. It kinda sticks to you forever!)

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18 minutes, 23 seconds: ohthelinsanity || ff.net || T || postwar || oneshot

in which Naruto asks Sakura about that time she literally reached into his chest and grabbed his heart with her bare hand.

(Heartwarming. We all know how Sakura held Naruto's heart on her palms and how we love that moment. This is memory of that moment reminisced by our cutie pies.)

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One Big Uzumaki Family: John Smith || ff.net || T || postwar || Complete

A set of drabbles revolving around Naruto, Sakura, and their children. It turns out that, when the war ends, these two get busy. Real busy.

(IF YOU DON'T READ THIS MASTERPIECE HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF NS FAN?!!! READ!!! This story should be on the top of your reading list.

UNDERRATED AF!

R e a d t h i s s t o r y and cry with me for this should have been canon. 100%)

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My Life Would Suck Without You: peanutbutter126 || ff.net || T || oneshot collection

Sometimes it's the smallest things that matter the most.

(Read this and then One big Uzumaki family. You'll feel super satisfied. I promise.)

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Colors and Carousels: Folle Sakura || ff.net || T || oneshot

She couldn't count the number of times she'd been mistaken for Naruto's girlfriend. Not that she minded. But Naruto acted like it was so… so… offensive.

(No words for this one. Just read and enjoy the confusion.)

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Let's Get Married: luvtoshi || ff.net || M || postwar || complete

It was supposed to be a simple solution to their immediate problems. But maybe they took more than they can chew?

(This is one of my few favorites that is also popular. Spot on characterization and beautiful relationship growth. This is one of the few stories that always stuck to me.)

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Chasing Smoke with Bare Hands: soulaire || ff.net || T || oneshot

"I could have loved her," Sasuke says flatly. "If she'd just given me the chance—" "Sakura gave you all the chances in the world," Kakashi cuts in, stern. "You underestimated her. And you underestimated her ability to walk away from you. At the core of it all, that's where things went wrong."

(This story is for those who loves both SS and NS but thinks Sakura deserves happier life than what she got in canon. Features NS and slight SS.)

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Touch: ohthelinsanity || ff.net || T || oneshot

Kakashi watches as his student grow to be more physically comfortable with one another. He finds it kinda ridiculous.

(Fluff. Feelings. Kakashi's fed up and might have diabetes from all the observation.)

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Moonlight shadows: luvtoshi || ff.net || T || oneshot

Sometimes, the moon brings out hidden feelings to the surface.

(Beautiful literature. NS feels. You can almost mistake it for canon with the way characters are written.)

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Seriously Serious: Damsel in Shining Armor || ff.net || T || modern AU || oneshot

He confessed to her when they first met. He confessed to her years after. He confessed to her almost everyday. Her response was almost always positive... So why the heck was he still single? "I love you." "Love you too. So is Sasuke-kun taken or not?"

(The only reason why I even picked this story is that it is a oneshot. I have very little interest in modern AU. But this one makes another exception. Pining. Love at first sight.)

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It was always you: luvtoshi || ff.net || M || postwar || complete

The war is long over. They have both grown. Now it's time to conclude their story. Naruto and Sakura.

(You know what, all stories from this author are just, Chef's kiss. )

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A Safe Pair of Hands: Kanji no Sakka || ff.net || T || oneshot

Sakura heeds a stern warning to make it clear how she feels about Naruto.

(Feels. You'll love this if you like first person pov. This story told from Sakura's pov.)

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Other Dreams: tricksie || ff.net || M || oneshot

"Naruto, you shouldn't endanger yourself—" "Stop it," he snapped. Dropping his arm to hook under her seat, Naruto pulled her firmly onto his hip, locking her to him. Sakura gasped, suddenly aware of just how very close they were.

(Sexual tension. Romance. Leaves you wanting. Also, high on feels and lust on equal measure.)

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Heaven Unexpected: Folle || ff.net || M || oneshot

Because nothing can happen; it's Naruto. He always comes back. He's practically indestructible.

(Heavy on feels. There are chances that it might rain. Actually there are high chances. But oh well, it's beautiful and one of my favourites so here it goes.)

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Shade of the Leaf: Ravyn || ff.net || T || canon divergent || complete

Sasuke is back. Naruto has joined ANBU. Sakura is spending more time in the hospital than in the field. Team 7 struggles to redefine itself, because sometimes you don't know what you really want after all.

(Featuring Mature but still in-character!Naruto, Badass!Sakura, (Bit)Supportive!Sasuke along with Team 7 friendship. Mutual pining. Ending but with a lot loose ends.)

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Breaking Up Isn't that Hard to Do: Narf-for-the-Garthoc || ff.net || T || oneshot

This is not an epic tale of action, suspense and true love. Yeah, I'm disappointed, too.

(This is pure comedy. With a dash of romance. And insanity.)

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Steamy Encounters: Narf-for-the-Garthoc || ff.net || T || oneshot

A flurry of coincidences and fateful machinations bring Naruto and Sakura together at the local baths. Can they rein in their animal passions? And do you really think that's the kind of story I write?

(Just r e a d. Please.)

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Garden of Sanctuary: Nes Mikel || ff.net || T || Canon divergent || oneshot

An alternate ending to Naruto. The Heavens describe the Garden a peaceful paradise. The Hells describe the Garden a baneful prison. In here... which is it?

(This is part of a series which you can follow from the author's profile. This is the second part, but can be read exclusively. As far as the AU goes, this story and settings is brilliant and heartbreaking. This is told from Naruto's pov. To look at things from Sakura's, read the first part. It is multi-chaptered.)

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Complications: Geno Calamari || ff.net || T || canon divergent || oneshot

While capturing the Kyuubi, Uchiha Itachi finds true adversaries in the form of Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto.

(Wanna see NaruSaku teamwork? This is it! You wouldn't find it anywhere better. Strong!Naruto, Strong!Sakura versus Itachi Uchiha)

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Life is a waving feather: jusrecht || AO3 || T || AU || oneshot

Everyone thought they were inevitable.

(There's beauty in subtlety and this is that. Also, mentions of character death.)

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Home: kirabook || AO3 || T || AU || complete

Shinachiku finds himself in a strange place with little to no explanation. Everyone he knows is there, but why are they acting so strangely? Why do they seem so different? And where is his home? 

(Cute and heartwrenching at the same time. Cameo Stalker. Read this for NS family feels pre-marriage.)

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Things we never say: thekatthatbarks || AO3 || T || oneshot

She wished she knew how to hold things lightly. There were some things she was terrified of breaking. Whether it be from an honest misstep or simply because she could.

(Reminds you why we love NS so much.)

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Open seasons: sazzafraz || AO3 || T || SNS || postwar || oneshot

The way Sasuke comes home is less myth and more devastatingly embarrassing happenstance.

(Featuring badass!Sakura, obedient!Naruto and normal!Sasuke, as well as Sakura's commentary on her life)

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Five things Sakura will never tell Naruto: sowell || AO3 || T || AU || oneshot

Kunoichi know how to keep their secrets.

(NS relationship analysis story.)

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Artistic purposes: StormyInk || AO3 || M || AU || Oneshot

Sai finds his favorite drawing subjects a bit lacking of late, and he sets a plan into motion to draw his team mates together. Simply for the sake of his art, of course.

(Aka Sai is fed up from seeing his teammates dancing around each other and decides to help them get laid–the story. You gotta admit Sai is the best wingman.)

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I collect my tears (so I can drown you in them): amako || AO3 || T || AU || complete

The hardest thing is letting go. Or Sakura sees Naruto falling in love with Shikamaru a little more every day, and she does the only thing she can think of. Then it's only a matter of learning how to stop loving Naruto.

(Sakura and Angst that has nothing to do with Sasuke. Featuring Sakura-sensei. And Shikamaru. It's a great story if you know when to let go of canon)

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Stranger than the wild: kiddattwell || AO3 || M || SNS || postwar || Ongoing

The war is over and Sasuke is home for good, but Sakura can't choose between the boys she loves. Sasuke still has his demons and Naruto still fights them and Sakura still follows them both, but this time down a path that none of them expected.

(This is canon. It is the best SNS story I've ever read. Story told in SNS POV in rotation. Slow burn, pining and relationship complication. YOU GOTTA READ THIS, I INSIST!!!! Also features SaiIno and InoShika.)

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Bringing Back Sasuke: Blue Jeans || ff.net || T || post war || oneshot

Naruto brings Sasuke back to Sakura. Many, many times over. Sasuke does not appreciate; not the blood and definitely not the angst.

(I've read this story multiple times and it gets funnier and makes your heart hurt and swell simultaneously each time. NaruSaku wouldn't be blissfully happy together without Sasuke thrown somewhere in the mix, that's exactly why I love SNS. This story perfectly represents the dynamic of team 7.)

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Yurei: Kanji no Sakka || ff.net || T || AU || oneshot

The past should stay dead and buried, but it won't if Naruto can't let go.

(Not exactly my favourite story, but I liked the concept. We all know how stubborn Naruto is once decides on something. If he wants to become Hokage, he will become Hokage. If he believes in Sasuke, he will believe in him forever. If he loves Sakura, he will marry her – uh, or should have, very OCC of him that he didn't.)

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Tag NS fan you know so they don't miss any of this!

[waybrights]

consider: sashanne fear street au, anne as deena and sasha as sam

(If you haven't watched it, i reccomend it, its really good and has horror lesbians)

OMG YES!!!!! i've been planning on writing a whole thing for this for ages but just never did it, but i finally found the motivation to write smth little for this!!!

anne squeezed her eyes closed, the too bright lights of the city fading into nothing as she stood outside the school, leaning on a cool metal railing. she wasn't sure how long it had been since she'd had a proper full nights sleep but she could guess that it had been a few days. if she wasn't plagued with dreams of the most recent string of murders, it was her, her warmth, her stupidly perfect smile and how it could make anne forget all her problems, the sadness in her eyes the day she told anne she was leaving. no matter what anne tried to do, she could never get her out of her head, it was almost like she was being haunted by the first girl she'd ever truly loved.

that was stupid though, ghosts didn't exist, or that's what she'd always told herself, stuck firmly in the belief that spirits and other supernatural beings were made up to scare kids when they were being naughty. there was no reason to believe otherwise, no one had ever actually got any recorded evidence of ghosts existing (there were the stories, about the Witch, but anne never counted those. after all, how could a whole town be cursed?) and even if they had it would be debunked a week later, someone had overlaid photos, or taken a blurry picture of their friend in a bed sheet.

ghosts didn't exist, that she had been stubborn on, no matter what Marcy had said, or how many times Sprig shuffled into her room in the middle of the night, whispering about hearing noises in the walls. ghosts didn't exist, it was scientifically impossible.

"hey," a gentle voice snapped anne out of her thoughts. turning on her heels, hands gripping the metal as tightly as she could, her eyes landed on a familiar blonde head of hair.

anne let out a relieved sigh, her muscles relaxed and grip loosening. "hey, sash," she replied, casting her friend? ex-girlfriend? acquaintance, a smile.

sasha, too, seemed to relax slightly at the sight of anne. hesitantly, she walked up to the railing, leaning against it and staring out into the night a few inches away from anne. "so," sasha said, her breath coming out in small clouds as she spoke. "how you holding up?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the orange horizon for a moment.

"oh, oh yeah," anne nodded, turning back to horizon. "i'm feeling great," she laughed though it carried little humour. sasha huffed out a small laugh of her own, pulling her eyes away from the horizon to glance at anne out of the corner of her eyes.

"i'm sorry about all this-"

"it's not your fault we're getting chased by three dead serial killers," anne shrugged, cutting sasha's sentence in half. she wasn't sure she could deal with the apologies anymore, whether or not they were from the heart.

"i know, but i still can't help but feel if i was just better-"

"sasha," anne whispered, turning away from the city to take sasha's cold hands in her own warm ones. "what happened wasn't just your fault." a frown tugged at sasha's lips but she didn't object. "we're both at fault, okay? yeah, you shouldn't have been so controlling, but i shouldn't have kept how i felt to myself. it's just as much my fault as it was yours, so please stop acting like you have to single-handedly try to fix us."

"annie," sasha started, her voice shaking, "we could die tonight, let me just-"

"no," anne gripped sasha's hands like a lifeline. "no don't, don't think like that. we'll be fine, 'kay? we're going to make it though tonight, yeah," sasha nodded slowly, a determined spark lighting in her eyes. "we're going to survive, and then i'll take you to that shitty restaurant you used to like so much, and then we can talk about this okay? about us, but only after we get through this."

sasha slowly scanned anne's face, most likely looking for any sign of a lie. when she didn't find one, she nodded once again, sucking in a breath. "you should become a motivational speaker," she giggled, smiling down at their intertwined hands.

anne snorted. "those people are always in cults, sash."

humming, sasha squeezed anne's hand. "true."

the sounds of the city had never seemed so loud to anne, the cars passing by and police sirens wailing had always been apart of that mindless background noise. for as long as she could remember, anne had always found it nothing more than white noise, something that managed to lull her to sleep on the hardest of nights. but that seemed to change as the pair stood there, covered in blood and shivering in the cold breeze. every siren that passed set anne on edge, every sound of quick footsteps made anne tense, though they were never coming for her, only just passing by into the deepest parts of the city, not caring about the two girls standing hand in hand outside the school.

"do you believe in ghosts?" sasha asked, breaking through the noise.

anne sighed and furrowed her brows. "i didn't," she shook her head, "i don't."

"then how do you explain this?" sasha gestured to the bloodstain on anne's jumper.

"i- i don't know," she admitted, looking down at the dark stain. "maybe it's all just a really weird dream."

"what? a dream you're sharing with your brother, best friend and ex?" sasha laughed weakly.

"maybe," anne shrugged. "you never know what goes on once the world goes to sleep."

"this happens, annie," sasha mumbled, her smile dropping off her face. "the curse happens and people die."

"gee, what happened to not thinking like that?" anne asked, forcing out a laugh. "besides, the curse doesn't exist, it's just a stupid story."

"i-"

but before sasha could finish, the doors to the school burst open and revealed a panting marcy, followed shortly by sprig. "i've figured it out," marcy huffed, holding the door to keep herself standing. "it's, it's her. it's the Witch."

anne felt what little hope she had that this was all just an extremely realistic dream drain out of her at the words and the seriousness of marcy's voice.

"huh," sasha said into anne's ear. "what was that about ghosts and the curse?"

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E6; Chapter Six, The Monster - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Male!Reader Series

𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘠/𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘌𝘭𝘴𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘑𝘰𝘺𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘣’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.

|| 𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

Joyce and Hopper sat opposite one another at the kitchen table of the Byers' home. The house was cold and hardly lit, copies of newspaper clippings scattered all around the house. One of the only light sources was a dusty chandelier that hung from the kitchen ceiling above the table and their heads, illuminating the several papers.

"Look, we gotta go through this again." Joyce insisted.

"I told you everything that I saw."

"Oh, gosh," she sighs into her hands. "Tell me again."

"Upstairs or downstairs?" Hopper asked.

"Upstairs."

"There was a laboratory. It was where they must do experiments or something, and then there was... well you see, like I said, I got turned around."

Hopper was currently sharing all he had encountered on his rogue mission at Hawkins National Laboratory. Joyce, all the while was hanging on his every word.

"I told you, it was like, I don't know, it wasn't supposed to exist. That whole area, it was abandoned and... forgotten, like it was all some big mistake. Once I found my way back, I saw that... kid's room. That other kid's room, I mean. Like it was actually used, but it didn't even look like a kid's room, neither of them did. It looked like a prison."

Hopper sighed and rubbed the bottom of his palms into his eyes tiredly, is fingers held the lit cigarette inches away from his face as he did so. "If that even makes sense,"

"Well," Joyce began, trying to get to the bottom of this never ending mystery. "So why would you think it was a kid's room, then?"

"Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was a drawing, there was a stuffed animal--"

Joyce interrupted the man quickly. "Y-You didn't say there was a drawing."

"Yeah, there was a drawing of a... an adult and a child. It said 'Eleven' on it."

"Was it good?" Joyce pressed.

"It was a kid's drawing, Joyce. It was stick figures."

Joyce had a knowing look on her face as she stood up with a sigh, retrieving a piece of crinkled line paper and slammed it down on the table for Hopper to see.

She pointed to the detailed drawing as she sat back down.

"Wasn't Will." She stated confidently, shakily bringing the cigarette back up to her lips.

Hopper examined the drawing and everything seemed to click. He returned his gaze to the anxious mother. Hopper quickly put out his cigarette in the ashtray and made a beeline for the coffee table.

"Earl..." he muttered, as he made his way into the living room. Joyce, who had abandoned her cigarette, was right on his heels.

"The night that Benny died, Earl said he saw some kid with a shaved head with Benny," Hopper and Joyce took a seat beside one another on the living room couch, Hopper's eyes fixed on the several news clippings splayed along the wooden coffee table. "Now, I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe..."

The man began shifting through the papers, and Joyce spoke up.

"Wait... Maybe, it wasn't?"

Hopper pulled the article he had been looking for and pointed to the fuzzy photograph of the woman in the article.

"Look... this woman, Terry Ives, she claims to have lost her daughter, Jane. She sued Brenner, she sued the government... Now, the claims came to nothing, but what if... I mean, what if this whole time I've been... I've been looking for Will... I've been chasing after some other kid?"

|| 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕 ||

Everything is a mess.

Will is still missing, the party is falling apart, Mike and Lucas are still angsty messes that won't speak to one another, and now, El left us. She probably thinks I hate her.

'But I don't! I was just scared'

(Ok but like,,,, who else ships El and reader cause damn I've been giving myself feels lately, dang)

'We need to fix this'

I sigh and sit up from my bed and make my my way to Dustin's room.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"I just... I can't believe she didn't come back." Mike sighed.

Dustin and I agreed we needed to talk some sense into the rest of the party. So we got our bikes and made our way to Mike's. Dustin was standing opposite Mike while I currently occupied one of the D&D chairs I had pulled up. Mike was worriedly pacing the floor in front of us.

"She's gotta be close." Dustin offered.

"She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us. She didn't betray us."

"Mike, calm down."

Mike only ignored Dustin and kept talking, more to himself than anybody it seemed.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should've done that."

"Mike, this isn't your fault." Dustin said.

"Yeah, it's Lucas'."

"It wasn't his fault, either." Dustin countered softly.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Mike stopped in his tracks. He looked at my brother dumbfounded and took a few steps in his direction. "It wasn't his fault?"

"No."

"So you're saying he wasn't way out of line?"

"Totally, but so were you!"

"What?"

"And so was Eleven."

"That's ridiculous! Y/n, tell him he's being ridiculous!"

Very calmly, I stood up with my arms crossed and stood next to my brother, and sighed, eyes fixed on Mike. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dustin is absolutely right."

Mike seemed even more furious. "Oh, give me a break!"

Dustin snapped at these words and stormed up to Mike. "No, Mike, you give me a break! All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes! Y/n and I were the only reasonable ones! But the bottom line is... you pushed first. And you know the rules. You draw first blood..."

"No! No way! I'm not shaking his hand."

"You're shaking his hand." I press, stepping forward.

He was sure to make eye contact with me over Dustin's shoulder as he spoke. "No, I'm not."

So I strode toward him and gave him a slight glare.

"This isn't a discussion. This is the rule of law. Obey or be banished from the party. Do you wanna be banished?" I asked firmly.

Mike crossed his arms and pouted before speaking up meekly. "No."

"Good!" I chirp, my face beaming as if we hadn't just been fighting which seem to only terrify him more.

I all but skipped over to the chair grabbing my coat, Dustin following my actions.

"Where are we going?" Mike asked with a hint of frustration.

"Where do you think?" Dustin asked as he put his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

"We're going to get Lucas." I finished, straightening my jacket then looked back to Mike.

My face softened and I tilted my head slightly. "And then we're gonna find Eleven."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

The three of us stood on Lucas's porch and I rang the doorbell. We stood waiting until the door swung open and Lucas stood there glaring at all three of us, but mostly Mike.

"What do you want?" He spit, resting his hands in his pockets.

There was brief silence which was then interrupted by a muffled smack of Dustin hitting Mike in the arm.

Mike sighed softly and looked to Lucas, clearly hating every second of this.

"I drew first blood, so..." he extended his hand for Lucas to shake but Lucas didn't move.

Great. Of course nobody was going to make anything easy. Why would they?

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Somehow I had convinced Lucas to let us all in and now, we all stood in the middle of his living room as he paced silently across the floor considering Mike's offer. He finally stopped and stared at the three of us.

"Okay, I'll shake."

Mike sighed what I barely made out to be a "finally" as he extended his arm out once more. Dustin and I perked up, that was until Lucas continued.

"On one condition. We forget the weirdo and go straight to the gate." He finished, arms crossed defiant.

"Then the deal's off." Mike barked.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"No, no, not fine! Guys seriously?" Dustin yelled, as I threw my head back frustrated.

Dustin forced Mike to face him as he spoke. "Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass?"

Lucas and Mike shared a confused glance.

Dustin seemed shocked and offended that they had no recollection and continued.

"We couldn't agree on what path to take, so we all split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!"

"Yeah, I agree. But this is the party, right here in this room."

"El is one of us now."

"Um, no, she's not. Not even close! Never will be. She's a liar, a traitor--"

"She was just trying to keep us safe! She didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident!"

"An accident?"

"All right, accident or not... admit it, it was a little awesome." Dustin said.

"Awesome?"

"Yeah, she threw you in the air with her mind!"

"I could have been killed!"

"Would everybody just shut up for one second, please!" I snap.

Everybody looks to me, a shocked expression on their faces.

I step forward and begin my long awaited  rant.

"I am sick of your attitude." I point at Lucas. "I am sick of your whining." I point to Mike. "I am sick of all three of you bickering," I gesture to all of them. "I love you guys and I can't thank you enough for taking me in and including me, know that, but GOD I am tired of being stuck listening to you boys argue about every little thing!"

I myself began pacing, my voice continuously rising. "I'm sick of putting up with all your petty arguing when we should be looking for Will only to come home at the end of the day, having found NOTHING and crying my eyes out because the only person who never gave a shit about who started what is missing and probably dead!"

I stopped pacing and looked to the boys who were all silent. I sighed and lowered my voice. "Lucas, you're right. You could have been killed. Which is exactly why we need her. She is more powerful than all of us combined."

"Y/n's right. Do you seriously wanna fight the Demogorgon with your wrist rocket?" Mike said, anger still in his voice. "That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader. We're no use to Will if we're dead."

Lucas looked torn for a moment, but then he shook his head and pointed at the three of us. There was disappointment in his voice. "If you three wanna waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, 'cause I'm not spending my time on her anymore. No way!"

I sighed, putting my face in my hands. Lucas continued.

"I'm going to the gate. I'm going to find Will."

Lucas shoved the boys aside and stormed off, leaving the three of us alone in more ways than one.

[wolvesandpetals]

Loki x Sylvie Post-Finale Fanfiction (Angst, Rated Teen) Part 2 of 2

Part 1 is here:

She never knew it would hurt this much when the person she loves is right in front of her, but she can't reach out and touch him; when she is still her, he is still him, but everything else has changed, like an invisible lever in an old theatre changing the scenery in the background, bringing them both to the part of the play where they are hopelessly lost.

[[MORE]]

All it took was one single moment, one single decision, and everything feels irrevocably broken now. It makes her contemplate on the true nature of relationships, how fragile they are, and how easy it is to shatter them- and her.

The smoke is slowly clearing, and all that seems to be left is a man who is doing his best to keep his distance from her, physically and emotionally.

She can tell from the way he stands with his arms crossed, or his fists clenced when his hands are by his side, that he really doesn't want to hold her hand. How can something so simple as the touch of his fingers be so vital to her existence that it feels like something has been ripped out from inside her?

She wants to reach out and touch him, but she is scared that if he pulls away outright, any hope of reconciliation that she still has left will shatter into pieces.

And she really needs this hope. It's the only thing she still has left. It's the only thing that keeps her going.

---

He looks like a man with a mission.

They spent quite a long time together, running from the TVA, running towards the citadel at the end of time, hoping to achieve their goal of bringing down the one behind the curtains.

But that was her mission, and he was there for her. She was the one behind the wheels, he was the one keeping the sails afloat.

Now it's different. Now he has a defined goal, a glorious purpose.

She's seeing him in a whole new light now, and not just because he has switched to Asgardian leather and metal armors.

As far as she is concerned, she is better off doing it all alone. One woman army, nobody to get in her way, nobody to screw up her plans. Nobody to blame her if it all goes to shit.

Or so it was, until two months ago, when Mobius decided to enlist her help in fixing the multiversal madness.

She has never really worked with people before, and it's weird, to say the least. She never considered herself a team player, but she is finding herself hating the idea less and less lately.

And she swears it has nothing to do with him. Not the fact that they are working together, and seeing his face first thing in the morning brings her a sense of calm that she quite can't explain. Or the fact that their rooms are next to each other and it makes her feel secure enough to finally get some rest at nights. Or that this whole arrangement has kept them on talking terms, when they had gone their own separate ways otherwise.

Nothing to do with that at all.

---

Humans are stupid, and the biggest evidence of this is how they decided that two extremely powerful Gods skilled at magic, enchantment, and defeating an evil extra dimensional cloud that swallows everything it touches, should be delegated to the role of research. "You're clever. You're good at reading people. You can put yourselves in the shoes of the bad guys, no offense", they said, but really, what they meant was, "We can't trust you out in the field much." She knows it, he knows it. She just doesn't know why he's complying.

That's how they find themselves researching every single day.

She likes to think he's not the only reason why she's studying in the library instead of in the comfort of her room, but that'd be a lie.

At first, he chooses to sit at a separate table. But she keeps going over to his to "get his opinion" on something in the file she's reading, and finally, he gives in. Their current arrangement consists of him sitting in the chair in front of her, to the left, prim and proper, while she hoists her feet up on the table.

He falls asleep on the desk one night, face smacked against a file, the tiniest bit of drool forming at the corner of his mouth. It would be a hilarious sight, if her heart wasn't feeling what she can only describe as longing.

They should probably talk about it, like mature adults, but neither of them know how to do that.

All she can do right now is gather the courage to run her fingers through his hair. The touch is hesitant at first, as if one wrong move would make him wake up and push her back to square one. Slowly, she relaxes, letting her fingers dance on his scalp.

He stirs in his sleep. "Please Sif. I'm sorry. Don't cut off my glorious locks, please."

Now this is a story she must hear when things are better.

If things are better.

---

Doctor Strange joins them very briefly, very rarely, but the tension between him and Loki is hard to miss. It's worse than the current situation with her, and that's saying something.

"You don't really like Stephen, do you?"

Something inside him seems to shift, but he masks it behind a non-chalant look immediately and just arches an eyebrow at her. "He's Stephen now, is he?"

"Well, that is his name." She shrugs. "What do you call him?"

"Strange", he spits the word out with an amount of irritation that indicates there definitely is a story there. "That is his name", he mimics.

She can't help the smirk that spreads across her lips. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing", he lies, ignoring the horrifying flashbacks of thirty minutes of endless falling. Not a single soul must ever know a mere human got the best of him. "What can he do to me? I'm a God among those mortals. He just irks me because he is so pompous, and arrogant, and he ceaselessly uses magic to toy with others."

She pretends to think deeply. "Now where have I seen that before?"

He scoffs. "You mock me, but I am nothing like him. For one, I am not rude."

"He seems fine to me", she declares decisively.

It's the first time in months that he gives her a cheeky grin. "That's because you're rude too."

---

They are still just containing the threats to their world, instead of finding a way to fortify the barriers between worlds and stop the threats from coming.

"Shouldn't we have a plan to seal off the other worlds from ours?" She asks him one day.

"They are working on it." He tells her, and then with a look of worry, adds, "I hope."

There are debates on what to do at the Avengers tower and at the TVA. Nobody seems to agree on what the best course of action is, but everyone seems to be following the general instructions of Doctor Strange.

During one such meeting, a Minuteman makes the mistake of voicing out loud how she wondered if things would be better if they were running according to their old boss's plans.

Sylvie feels the guilt wash over her once more.

"No", Loki tells them all firmly. The determination in his voice takes her completely by surprise. "Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition’s blurred." She catches him steal a glance at her direction. "We couldn't have left a dictator in charge just because it's convenient. Listen, I'm the bad guy. I've done horrible, unspeakable things. I thought humans needed to be ruled. I wanted to rule. But even I know that it's not right to take away a person's life completely. These are innocent people. You are innocent people. You have families back home, parents, children", a pause and a softening of his features, "-love. A whole past, a whole future. That man had no right to take it away from you."

His powers of persuasion are foreign to her, and it's mesmerizing to watch. Her enchantments cannot hold a candle to how he is able to just talk people into doing what he wants, thinking what he thinks, seeing what he sees.

"He who remains had a plan. One, singular plan, from one, singular man." There is absolute conviction in his voice. "It's not the only way. We'll find another way. A better way."

She has never known what it is like to have someone see you for who you are- broken and flawed, and defend you- even your well-intentioned actions that yielded different results than what you expected and hurt them in the process. She suspects it has been the same for him, a lifetime of not having anyone have his back.

The warm feeling inside her is brand new. What is the name of this? Comfort? Relief?

Happiness?

---

This will be their first time out in the field in a long time, and she feels a little sick to the stomach.

He notices. "Are you alright?"

The concern in his voice tugs at her heartstrings. She nods. She has faced way worse, she shouldn't be so nervous about this, but she is. "I've never done this before."

"We can always just kill him and blame it on the Chitauris", he suggests with a serious face.

"I heard that", Peter yells from the other room, where he is doing whatever it is that teenagers do to prepare for battle.

She shakes her head in disbelief. "I can't believe we're babysitting."

"I've done this before", he assures her, and it surprises her to picture him being entrusted with such a serious task. "The trick is to conjure up illusions that keep them distracted enough to not cry."

She laughs. "You're thinking of infants. This one is a little older."

"I'm over a thousand years old, Sylvie. They're all infants to me."

Peter joins them, mask covering his face so that he doesn't reveal his identity. "So what do I call you? Loki and Loki? That's confusing. How about Loki and Lady Loki? Or is that offensive? I'm not suggesting women are inferior, because they're absolutely not..."

"Does he come with an off switch?" She whispers in horror as Peter rambles on.

Loki grins. With one wave of his hand and a flash of green, Peter's own webbing shoots out and seals his mouth shut.

---

Things are fine but not fine at the same time. He's right there beside her, but not there at all. They have their banters, they have their stolen glances, but they haven't had a meaningful conversation since that first day when she got back. She's been putting it off for a long time, but she knows they really do need to have the talk.

She corners him in his room one evening while he's tinkering with a temporal collar. She takes a seat in the chair next to his bed and rests her hand on the table, leaning her head against her palm, before switching position and crossing her arms and legs. Everything about her posture screams uneasiness. If he notices- he probably does- he doesn't say anything.

"You defended me that day."

He briefly looks up from the task at hand and gives her a soft smile. "Of course."

She blinks. "I don't understand." Her hands involuntary rise up to rub her temples. "If you can justify my actions to them, then how can you still be mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you", he says without missing a beat.

"Rubbish", her words come out angrier than she intended. This frustration is the result of the months of status quo they have had. She has to know now, one way or the other. "You're distant. You're guarded", she accuses. Then her voice breaks, as she feels a part of her break all over again with her next words. "You don't hold my hand. Why? Tell me."

He abandons the collar and focuses his full attention on her. Staring straight into her eyes, he answers her. "You know why."

"I wouldn't be asking if I did. Look, if it's because I chose the mission over you-"

"-Of course it's not that." He says decisively. Then a sad smile clouds his face. It's the same look he had when she accused him of conning her to gain the throne. "Do you think I'm the type of man who would want a woman to abandon her life-long ambitions just because she has met someone?"

She knows he isn't. But it still doesn't answer why he is so cross with her. "What is it then?"

He pauses for a moment, trying to decide whether he wants to bare his soul out to her once more or not. There are two ways he can go from here- choose to not let her in again and save himself from the hurt, or trust her again and open himself up to potential pain.

Who is he kidding? Pushing her away- keeping her away- doesn't hurt any less.

There were a thousand things that had to go wrong to bring two Lokis from two universes together. A connection like that, it doesn't just happen.

And it doesn't just go away. The pain is constant, it's a part of him, pounding like a second heart every second he has to stop himself from reaching out for her hand.

This has to come to an end.

He takes in a deep breath, bracing himself. "You didn't have to send me away, Sylvie. I wanted to stop you from making the same mistakes I did. But in the end, I didn't care what you chose. I just wanted us to do it together."

She never even imagined this could be the reason for his hurt. All these months spent thinking he hates her for her choices, and now it turns out he is hurt simply because she chose to do it alone? "I'm sorry." She says sincerely. "I just wanted you to be safe."

"And I just wanted to be there with you till the end." He confesses. His eyes shimmer with the emotions he has kept bottled in for so long. "You go, I go."

She doesn't know what to say to that. She has never been good at articulating her feelings. Tears stream down her cheeks at the realisation that even after everything, he is still there for her.

She didn't cry even back at Lamentis when they thought they were going to die. She doesn't let anyone see her cry when she is sad or scared. That's all she has known her whole life. She's used to it by now.

This is new. These are tears of relief. Comfort.

Happiness.

Tentatively, she crosses over to the bed and sits by his side.

It's quiet for a few minutes. But unlike the months of tension so thick she could cut it into splices with her daggers, this is comfortable silence. The kind they had before it all went wrong.

"Did you even miss me?" He whispers.

"What kind of silly question is that? Of course I did." Her shaking hands grab his, and oh how she missed this.

He intertwines their fingers. His eyes draw closed. Bliss. That's the only word for this feeling.

He opens his eyes again and studies her. She's staring back at him, teary-eyed, but with a hopeful smile. "Really? Because you have a really unique way of showing it. You didn't even come looking for me."

"I didn't know how to face you", she tells him honestly. No tricks, no enchantment, no treachery. Not with him. "I didn't know if you even wanted to see me." Her voice grows quieter, dropping to a timbre that perfectly encapsulates her deepest fear. "I thought you hated me."

"Hate you?" He is shocked that she thinks that is even possible, specially after seeing him these last few months. "Sylvie, I'm working with the Avengers. The Avengers. Do you know how much I hate them? They are my nemesis. They're self-righteous, condescending, and so completely dull. Every second with them makes me want to rip their hearts out. Why do you think I'm here with them?"

She thinks she knows. But she needs to hear it anyway.

"It's because of you." He lays it all out on the table. All cards on deck, win or lose. "You've been running away. I have been the one who has been here, trying to hold down the fort, working to fix everything. Because that is what one does when one loves-"

Shit. The word slips out before he realises it.

Their eyes go wide in unison.

"Sylvie, I-"

"-Don't you dare take it back now." She warns him. "I-" She doesn't know how to say it either. They make such a great pair, both equally daft at saying how they feel, like they are teenagers, not Gods who have lived for centuries. "I've been running because I didn't think I could bear the burden of knowing I found you and then I lost you. I don't want to lose you. Not now, not ever."

He kisses the back of her hand, before letting it go. He cups her face, gently caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. "I don't want to lose you either."

She leans in closer, until their foreheads touch. She can feel his breath on her face, warm and soft. That is exactly how she feels inside. "You won't", she promises. "You go, I go."

---

(Quote on Lesser Evil from The Witcher. Thanks for reading!!)

[strangertheory]

How not to talk about queer relationships: part 1

It is unfortunate that some fans will focus their attention on people that hyper-sexualize the relationship between Mike and Will instead of noticing the many, many queer fans that hope and dream of seeing a realistic, affectionate, wholesome and loving queer ship develop between two young teens figuring out their feelings as they grow up in a conservative small town.

I find it unfortunate that this person and many other fans are preoccupied with the idea that having a canon queer ship should be avoided because some folk might fetishize it. The deep irony of this logic is that if we had more wholesome representation in the media and more well-written and nuanced relationships between queer characters, wrongful perception of queer relationships would improve overtime in our society, and people would eventually not fetishize queer couples as much as they do currently.

A common reason that things are fetishized is because they are seen as taboo or unusual. In an ideal world queer people would be perceived as neither taboo nor unusual.

Queer people are not fetishes. We are people with feelings and lives and yes we also have desires too. LGBTQA+ people fall in love and experience feelings just like cis-het people do. And the queer community, and queer ships, should not be treated like something dirty or problematic that "shouldn't be canon" just because some people choose to hypersexualize them. LGBTQA+ individuals have the right to exist in fiction and in the real world without being treated like something lesser. Our love is just as beautiful as love between cis-het couples.

I recognize that the person who wrote this might not have meant to be prejudiced. They might even be queer themselves! They might have truly thought "I hate how people fetishize queer relationships" and then came to the conclusion that this means we need fewer queer relationships in the media. (Yea, I know: it doesn't actually make sense. Maybe they weren't thinking. But I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and label this as "accidental prejudice.")

But, as I've pointed out: this logic is inherently flawed. We need more queer representation if we want to fix this problem, not less.

I think it's a bit unfortunate, and a product of society's unhealthy fetishization of gay men as being hypersexual and threatening, that the most popular homosexual ship in the fandom is Harringrove rather than Byler, especially considering all of the narrative hints that Mike and Will have feelings for one another. @hawkinsschoolcounselor has a great write-up on this issue here that I strongly agree with.

The gentle, protective, and affectionate dynamic between Mike and Will in Stranger Things is incredibly beautiful and I think it has so much potential to be a well-developed, realistically portrayed queer relationship in the series. While I understand that it might not happen, I think it would be a severely missed opportunity if it doesn't, and I firmly believe that all of the subtle groundwork in the story is already there and that the writers intend to follow through with it.

Just because some fans can't "see it" doesn't mean it's not there. The number of people that still insist that Will is straight still boggles my mind. But I'm also used to people making that assumption in the real world, too. The same way that people dismiss the possibility of queer characters in popular media, they dismiss people in the real world too. We are constantly having to be loud and proud because if we aren't, our rights and our experiences and our feelings are ignored because people either assume we don't really exist, or that we are rare and unlikely to exist in their social groups, or that we are lesser and a perversion and not equally worthy of representation and consideration and love.

These assumptions are destructive and wrong.

[onewaigu]

From Space

Genre : Alien!au

Theme : Slight fluff(?)

Pairing : Kanghyun(Onewe) X Reader

Description : Y/N accidently got pushed into the Earth's atmosphere and sent crashing into an unsuspecting Earth boy who was busy stargazing.

“I don't know, what if someone catches us?”

As much as you enjoyed getting on your parent's nerves by going on your dangerous adventures without telling them beforehand, you knew very well that if you were to go on this one particular adventure with your dear twin cousins, you would not only have to deal with your parent's wrath but you would have to deal with the High Council's too. 

After all, Earth had been out of bounds since eons ago. Anyone who dared to step foot on the planet, would be sent into exile without any hesitation.

There were many known theories as to why this rule existed in the first place, but nobody knew what the real reason was behind the need for it.

Tiny shivers ran down your spine at the thought of being exiled. From the stories you'd heard when you were little, exile didn't sound like a pleasant experience at all and because of that, you actually found it quite incredulous that your two younger cousins would even consider risking their lives just for the sake of-

“But Y/N, wouldn't it be cool to have Earth as our view while we play dodgeball? Like could you imagine just how beautiful that view would be..”

Those kids were going to be the bane of your life. However, they did have a point. Earth was truly a beautiful planet to anyone who had ever set their eyes on it and being close to it would definitely be an opportunity that would only happen once in a lifetime.

No. You really shouldn't.

Shaking your head as you placed both of your hands on your hip, you firmly told your cousins, 

“As a responsible adult, I don't think we should”

You expected to see sad frowns on your cousins' faces but instead you were met with mischievous grins. Oh no..

Dongmyeong, the older of the two twins, kicked his feet off the ground and began to circle around you in a playful manner while Dongju, the younger twin, decided to float horizontally in front of you, propping his head with his hands while looking at you with the most innocent-looking expression.

“That's too bad..”, pouted Dongju.

“We'll just have to go near that forbidden planet without any responsible adult supervision then”, sulked Dongmyeong as his shoulders slowly drooped.

A look of exasperation was plastered all over your face. You wanted to reason with them again and maybe lecture them on the consequences of going near the Earth but before you could say anything, the most dramatic gasp interrupted you. 

Dongmyeong who was busy circling you had suddenly stopped, his eyes widened in fake fear.

When did this kid become an actor, huh?

You mentally rolled your eyes, but gestured your hand at him begrudgingly, encouraging him to finish whatever nonsense he planned to say to convince you to change your mind about going near Earth.

“But what if something terrible happens to us, Dongju? There won't be any responsible adults there to save us from such tragedy!”, exclaimed Dongmyeong with utmost exaggeration, both of his hands were on his head.

“You wouldn't want that to happen, right Y/N?”

Dongju's question made you speechless because he was right. You wouldn't dare to let anything bad happen to your twin cousins. Not only were they like your own brothers, but Dongmyeong and Dongju were the crown princes of your home planet. It's true they were troublemakers but they still held some power in their name and status.

An irritated sigh escaped your lips. Your uncle and aunt would be seriously pissed if they knew you let the twins go off on their own.

“Fine, but we better be playing two metres away from the Earth's ozone layer”, you grumbled.

While both of your cousins were busy hollering in excitement, you were already making a move towards Earth.

“Hurry your butts up before anyone sees us”, you groaned in frustration.

-

Dodgeball wasn't a term native to your people. It was actually said to be derived from Earth. It was a game where players tried to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves.

The only difference was that people from your home planet would charge up ordinary rubber balls with some of their own energy and that meant that whoever got hit by a flaming ball of energy would be instantly thrown back by the huge impact and left with a stinging mark. Fun.

“Alright, here we are”, you said to your cousins who were following you from behind.

All three of you stood or rather floated in place as you marvelled at the planet in front of you.

Words could not possibly describe its heavenly beauty. Earth was truly an incredible wonder to the eyes. How could this be a forbidden planet?

“Y/N, look out!”, you turned around in confusion but unfortunately you weren't quick enough to realise that the ball Dongju had thrown was coming straight towards you at high speed.

It was too late.

As soon as the ball of energy touched a part of your abdomen, you were instantly thrown back by the huge impact, it was impossible for you to even divert your direction to anywhere else other than the planet behind you.

The faces of your twin cousins changed in absolute horror as they helplessly looked on at your figure slowly growing smaller and smaller, entering the Earth's atmosphere. They honestly couldn't do anything else to save you without endangering their own lives and because of that, they remained where they were.

-

“Why didn't you signal Y/N first that we were gonna start the game?”, Dongmyeong was the first to break away from the initial shock, his eyes widened in panic.

“What do you mean "signal", we always played dodgeball this way!”, shouted Dongju in frustration as he kept shaking his head in denial of what had just happened to you.

“..true”, mumbled Dongmyeong, letting his head drop.

The two princes fell into uneasy silence.

“We're doomed, aren't we?”

“Oh definitely..”

-

You were falling. You don't fall, you float but you were falling at that moment. When will the falling stop?

Maybe it was gravity that was pulling you down. You'd learnt about it in a lecture that Earth was the only planet that had this force that could pull you down towards the centre.

Despite being in a terrifying situation, you forced yourself to close your eyes, to let all the fear and panic inside you fade away. Hugging the energy ball tightly to your abdomen, you could feel a wave of peace washed over you. 

“I really hope the landing's soft”

-

Life could be tiring sometimes without a doubt. That's why people have hobbies, to distract themselves, to find an escape from their routine.

Hyungu's no different.

His fascination with astronomy started way back when he was younger when he used to have intricate dreams about asteroids, stars, and just about everything related to the universe above.

When he got older, he never once missed an opportunity to go stargazing. Lucky for him, he'd stumbled across this lonely hill one night while taking a longer route back home during his first year of university. 

The view from it was like no other. Hyungu would simply lie down on the plain grass and admire the map of stars twinkling above him. If he stayed a little longer, he might even catch a shooting star or two. 

There was a whole universe out there, and he could only watch it from his tiny little planet. Even so, he was still happy because stargazing truly felt like an infinite bliss for him.

-

On the 24th of November, he decided to visit the hill to meet his twinkling companions. He was also hoping he'd come across a few shooting stars to make some wishes. It was, after all, his birthday.

The path he took had cherry blossom trees lined up all the way to the hill, but their branches were bare without a single pink flowery beauty on them as winter was slowly approaching. Wisps of the cold wind blew on his face, sending tiny shivers throughout Hyungu's body. He hugged his white parka tighter around him to keep himself warm.

He had expected the night to be freezing which was why he came prepared with a huge thermos filled with delicious homemade hot chocolate tucked away safely in his tote bag. The night's stargazing experience would be just wonderful, he was sure of it.

Taking slow careful steps up the hill, he could already see his stars welcoming him. Regulus was shining brighter than ever which made Hyungu smile dearly in adoration of his favourite star.

After finding his usual spot, Hyungu immediately plopped on the grass with a soft thud. When he looked up into the sky, he could see dozens of beautiful stars scattered all over, looking as though they were like freckles on a person's face.

He started to search for constellations that he could remember off the top of his head and with each success, he bumped his fist in the air in victory. 

“I probably looked funny when I did that”, he chuckled to himself, his ears turning a faint shade of red. Thankfully, no one was there to witness it.

This went on for about a few minutes before something that was moving very fast caught Hyungu's attention from the corner of his eye. Turning his head sharply towards the source, excitement rose from inside of him.

A shooting star!

Normally, he would close his eyes and clasp his palms together as soon as he saw a shooting star to make a wish, but this time, he hesitated.

 He noticed something odd about it.

Firstly, it was slightly bigger than an average shooting star. Secondly, it was glowing purple. The second part was what shocked Hyungu the most, he had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. When did shooting stars become purple? Did he miss some kind of unforeseen phenomenon which caused them to change colours? Whatever it was, Hyungu was confused to say the least.

To make things even weirder, the shooting star had stopped moving halfway across the sky and was now directly in front of Hyungu's line of vision. It also seemed to be getting bigger and bigger as time passed by. Unfortunately, that's when he finally realised that the so-called shooting star was actually heading towards his direction, and it was moving fast.

Hyungu's eyes widened but he was frozen in place, too scared to move an inch from where he was. All he could do was shield his face with his padded arms, hoping that it would be enough to brace the impact.

He stood like that for a few minutes but when he heard nothing from the other side, he slowly removed his arms from his face. He really didn't expect to meet a pair of luminous gray eyes staring back into his own black ones, much less a whole person hovering above him.

Hyungu shared the same shocked look as the mysterious person. He didn't quite understand how this person could possibly be off the ground without having anything attached.

-

“What the-”, you whispered in confusion.

The fall took a while before it came to a stop. When it did, it didn't feel like you'd landed on something. Instead, you felt like you were still suspended in mid-air. Curious to know why, you slowly opened your eyes for the first time since you entered the Earth's atmosphere. Immediately, you were taken aback by the sight in front of you— or rather, below you because there was literally someone else, a boy, sitting on the ground below you. Before you could take a good look at him, you felt an invisible force push you in the back and send you crashing into the Earth boy.

His jaw hit your nose, and your forehead hit his.

The both of you were groaning in pain, lying a few feet away from each other after you had instinctively pushed yourself off of him upon impact. 

“Well, that was certainly a soft landing”, you said sarcastically as you got up from the cold ground while still rubbing your nose bridge to relieve the pain. You even had to blink a few times to adjust your blurry vision to your new surroundings.

The flames of the ball that you were hugging all throughout your fall down to Earth had already been extinguished and it was now resting against the Earth boy's foot. 

The Earth boy..

For a second there, you had forgotten all about him. You were a bit concerned though. Poor him probably didn't expect someone to crash into him from outer space.

With shy steps, you gingerly approached him. Just like you, he was also rubbing his nose bridge as he sat up from the ground and stretched out his legs. His eyes were closed too.

Once you were beside him, you crouched down to his level and lightly tapped his left shoulder twice. 

-

Hyungu was trying so hard to ignore the pain on his nose but it felt like he had just been hit hard by some type of metal. He was busy rubbing it when suddenly, he felt two light taps on his shoulder. 

Opening his eyes, he turned his head to his left and saw that the same mysterious person was smiling at him. Hyungu couldn't help but gape at this odd stranger's appearance. With hair of regal purple and eyes illuminating silver radiance, the person truly looked otherworldly. 

So aliens don't really look like E.T.?

-

Behind your smile, you were feeling kind of awkward because the boy had stopped moving once he laid eyes on you.

Is this Earth boy broken or something?

Not sure what made you do it, but you decided to reach your finger out and poked his forehead with it. You were glad that it took him out of the trance that he was in. Now, you could finally try asking him some of the questions that had been bothering you since you arrived on Earth.

“Hi, do you know where I could borrow a bio-ship? I really need to go back home as soon as possible”, you asked the Earth boy politely, pointing a finger upwards towards the sky.

Unfortunately, you were met with silence. 

“You do have bio-ships here on Earth, right? You know, the ones that are organic and make you look really cool when you take them for a spin”, you elaborated, assuming that maybe bio-ships went by another name on Earth and this Earth boy might be confused by that.

However, when he continued to give you confused expressions with no replies whatsoever, realisation finally hit you. 

“Oh no no no, please no, it can't be”, you shook your head furiously, desperately trying to reassure yourself but failing in the process.

Grabbing the boy's padded shoulders and shaking them back and forth gently, you hoped that your assumptions were wrong when you asked him, “Do you understand what I'm saying?”

From confusion to concern, the Earth Boy replied back, but unfortunately, not a single word was understood by you. Whatever he said was too foreign to your ears, you couldn't even guess the meaning of anything he was trying to say to you.

You stood up from where you were crouching and moved a few steps away from the Earth boy. With your back facing him, you placed a hand on your chest and tried to calm yourself down with slow breaths. Panicking wouldn't help your situation, so the best you could do right now was to proceed with a clear mind. Maybe then, could you think of something that could help overcome this language barrier.

 -

This definitely was the weirdest encounter Hyungu had ever experienced in his whole life. Who would've thought that a shooting star that turned out to be an actual person would be talking to him in some kind of alien language right now. 

Of course, he didn't know how to respond so he just kept quiet but the moment the mysterious space person started panicking and stood up from beside him, that's when Hyungu decided to pack his stuff as fast as he could and attempted to run away as quietly as possible. He had had enough of weird things happening to him in one night.

Tiptoeing down the hill, Hyungu kept looking back to make sure that the person was still there. Once he knew he was much further away from the hill, he slowed down his pace and leisurely strolled along the path that would take him back home to the dorms.

-

Did the Earth boy honestly think you didn't notice his retreating figure? His footsteps weren't as quiet as he probably thought they were.

While you were still unsure of what to do, you still followed him from behind because he might be the only one who could help you. Besides, there weren't any other Earth people around anyway.

You raked your brain to search for some solution. You could've sworn there was something you could do to learn a foreign language in an instant. There was a lesson around it when you took Earth Studies as an elective last year. You just had to remember what it was.

A low rumbling sound interrupted your thoughts. Clutching your stomach, you sighed in annoyance. It's been a few hours since you last ate or drank something. Moments later, another sound came from in front of you, this time it was a low gasp. You slowly raised your head to see that the Earth boy had finally realised that you were following him all this while. His eyes were wide open and his cheeks were tinted with a faint shade of red.

In a blink of an eye, he started to run. You were dumbfounded by his action but at that moment, something clicked in your mind and you began to chase after him.

“Wait, hold up! I need to do something”, you called out to him despite knowing that he couldn't understand anything you're saying.

He was fast but you were faster. When you heard the rustling of his clothing growing quieter, you took this chance to pick up your speed. Once he was already an arm's length away from you, you reached your right hand out and grabbed the sleeve of his padded clothing, causing him to halt.

You turned him around to face you. Not giving him any time to comprehend what was happening, you immediately landed a small peck on his rosy cheek. When you pulled away, the Earth boy blinked his eyes a few times before falling limp on the ground. 

Hmm Earth people faint when we do that? 

Even after you did that, you weren't completely sure if you had already absorbed the language of the Earth People. The only way to check was to wait for this Earth boy to wake up.

Folding your arms in annoyance, you began eyeing the bag that he was carrying. As if on cue, your stomach rumbled one more time. Touching your abdomen, you wondered if he had anything on him right now.

Isn't that stealing? 

You shook your head reassuringly.

It's "borrowing"

Satisfied with your own logical reasoning, you took a step closer to the purple bag that was still slung on the Earth boy's left shoulder. You lifted his arm up and removed the bag, leaving his arm to fall back to the ground with a thud. You peered at his face for a second and saw that he was still unconscious.

“How long before he finally wakes up?”, you stifled a laugh.

Holding the bag in your hands, you began to rummage through it, searching for anything that could stop your stomach from making any more embarrassing sounds. 

Eventually, you found something. It seemed like a mere metallic cylinder at first but when you shook it near your ear, you could hear some type of liquid swirling inside. Eager to know what it was, you unscrewed the lid and brought the brim closer to your nose. When you inhaled, a strong rich sweet-smelling scent greeted you.

Bringing the cylinder to your lips, you downed the chocolate-coloured liquid in one shot. You let out a happy sigh as you could feel the silky smooth texture of it against your throat. It was absolutely delicious, you had never tasted anything like it on your home planet. It was gone in an instant!

Setting the cylinder aside, you lazily turned your head towards the Earth boy's direction to see him staring back at you.

“Oh great, you're awake!”, you smiled at him.

“Did you finish all of that?”, he pouted, “I didn't even get to taste it and it's gone”.

“Aww I'm sorry about that”, you apologised while looking guiltily at the empty metallic cylinder.

“Oh no, it's okay- Wait a minute!”, he exclaimed halfway through his sentence, pointing a shaky finger at you. “I understand you!”

Your whole face suddenly lit up when you heard those words, “You do? You understand what I'm saying?”, you asked him excitedly.

The Earth boy nodded his head enthusiastically. He too, was smiling in excitement, though he wasn't exactly sure why.

“It worked, I can't believe it worked!”, you whispered to yourself in glee. Now, you're one step closer to finding a way back home.

The sound of someone clearing their throat echoed into your ears. You figured it came from the Earth boy so you just hummed back in response.

“I don't mean to offend, but are you..an alien?”

Upon hearing that, you turned your head sharply at him which caused him to look away shyly.

Tilting your head a bit, you shrugged, “Well if being an alien means I'm from up there then yes, I'm an alien”, you told him nonchalantly.

“Oh w-wow, that's uhm nice”, he stuttered back awkwardly while scratching the back of his ear.

Even though you're extremely curious to know what life was like on Earth, you had to abandon any thoughts of exploring it. 

“Anyway, do you know where I could borrow a bio-ship or any type of spacecraft? I really need to get home”, you asked him in a serious manner. 

The Earth boy repeatedly tapped a finger on his lips in concentration, trying to think of an answer. However, when he looked like he had one, he gave you an uncertain smile. You were a bit worried to listen to what he had in mind.

“There is a place which has those..”, he trailed off.

Why did it seem like there would be a 'but'?

“..but normal people can't just go there and borrow a spacecraft, it's government property”, he furrowed his eyebrow at you in empathy, “I'm sorry”

You felt your heart shatter into a million pieces. Assuming that this so-called government was like your home planet's High Council, there was no way you would ever be able to leave Earth any time soon. Heaving a sigh, you waved your hand dismissively at the Earth boy.

“No worries, I guess I'm stuck here for a while”, you mumbled defeatedly while raising your head up to look at the night sky. You hoped that your twin cousins were at least busy finding a way for you to get back home.

From the corner of your eye, you could see the Earth boy visibly contemplating on something.

“Uhm..do you have a place to stay?”

A low gasp escaped from your lips. You hadn't thought about that at all. “No, I've never been to Earth before, so I don't know anyone here”, you frowned deeply as you hugged your elbows. All of a sudden, you felt alone and you wanted to cry.

But then, you could hear a soft kind voice asking you in the most gentlest way, “Do you maybe want to stay at mine? It's actually a dorm with a few other people but I'm sure they won't mind it”

“I don't want to trouble you..”, you already felt bad for being such a burden to this young Earth boy.

“Trouble? Helping someone else who's in need isn't a trouble at all”, he beamed at you reassuringly.

You hesitated for a while before accepting his offer. Something about this Earth boy made you feel like he was someone you could trust. 

Soon after, the two of you began heading towards the Earth boy's dorm, walking side-by-side each other. Your eyes were wandering everywhere the whole time, soaking in the beauty of Earth.

“I'm Hyungu by the way”

You stifled a laugh but quickly tried to hide it by covering your mouth with your hand.

Hyungu looked at you in confusion, not understanding why you thought his name was funny.

“Sorry, it's just that I've been calling you Earth boy in my head the whole time since I landed here”, you explained to him apologetically. You could feel the heat rushing to your cheeks so you looked away, hoping that he didn't notice it.

“I'm Y/N”, you told him.

“Aren't you cold, Y/N?”, he shivered as a cold breeze blew on their faces. Hyungu kept tugging at his parka to try and stay warm but he noticed that his new alien friend was completely unfazed by the freezing weather. In fact, he was bewildered when he first saw you because you weren't wearing any thick warm clothes.

“Nope”, you simply replied back.

He nodded and the both of you went back to walking silently beside each other.

At that moment, Hyungu finally accepted that he probably wasn't dreaming anymore.

[a/n]

hi hi! yes, this was lowkey inspired by starfire and robin's first meeting where starfire kissed robin to understand and speak English ^ ^

hope you had fun reading this!

also don't forget to stream parting ;)

[sydney-stylites-blog]

Of betrayals and backstabbings | The Dragonpit edition

Yeah the title really doesn't make a lot of sense, but I liked how it sounded 🤷🏻 I kind of wanted to explore the whole Jon betraying Dany thing again, and why the Dragonpit scene conclusively ended any doubts I might have had regarding that.

I've been staunchly against the concept of Jon betraying Dany and I've addressed it multiple times already. Betraying Dany doesn't fit in Jon's character sketch. There a million already existing problems which everyone has to deal with, and Jon playing Dany is not one of them. Of course, then we have the classic case of Ygritte brought up. If Jon could betray her for the Night's Watch, why can't he betray Dany for his family? What antis conveniently forget every time they bring this up is that Ygritte (and the wildlings) were coming to destroy the Night's Watch (and a ton of innocent people while at it). So Jon betrayed her because he had no other option. Dany is coming with her armies and dragons to save Jon's home, save the North...so why, why would Jon betray her? What would he have to gain by this?

Consider this. When Sansa and Arya played Littlefinger, that was awesome! We not only supported it, but we were thrilled af when it happened! But what about when Littlefinger had betrayed Ned Stark, and that was after telling him he shouldn't have trusted him? I mean, he had warned him earlier hadn't he? So the betrayal wasn't out of the blue, right? It was something we should have been expecting, wasn't it? But did we support that? Did we agree with or sympathise with Littlefinger?

And okay, when Jon betrayed Ygritte, who did you agree with more? Did you feel bad for Ygritte but also felt that Jon had done the right thing? Could you see Jon's struggle between love and duty and acknowledge that the right choice wasn't as easy to make?

Why were our reactions different to all those situations? Short answer - motive. Our reaction to betrayals are based on the motive, and how well it is portrayed in the narrative. 'A woman murdered a man' evokes a different reaction than 'a woman executed a man who had led to the death of her own father'. Throw in the fact that he was still trying to get her to kill her sister, and we not only agree with the woman in question here, we are positively cheering her on! Because that's the difference motive makes - it justifies actions otherwise considered wrong, and we have numerous examples of it in Game of Thrones. My personal favorite, of course, is Jaime and the Kingslayer story because it perfectly highlights the difference between us knowing the reason, or judging the action as it stands.

So what could be Jon's motives for playing Dany?

We have the obvious, to protect his family and Winterfell from the unstable witch (that is supposedly Dany on tumblr).

But that's the thing again antis. Dany has never once, not once threatened or even implied in extremely vague terms anything that could be constituted to be a threat to Winterfell or the Starks. In all their interactions, whenever she wanted Jon to bend the knee, she never even went in the general area of threatening his family if he refused to. The issue of family wasn't brought up at all in that sense, so the idea that she would harm his family now, after having clearly developed feelings for him, has only sprung from the minds of the Jonsa Fandom who very much want it to be true because it justifies their POV and their ship. Because the assumption that Dany would want to destroy Winterfell, destroy the Starks and Jon realized this and is appeasing her by catering to her romantic feelings would work extremely well if, if it had been implied anywhere at least once, even if vaguely. But it hasn't been portrayed, and by itself fails to suffice as the motive setting up Jon conning Dany.

Jon will never betray Northern independence for love, and is only faking it to protect the North from Dany's ire.

Considering that the North was already protected from Dany's ire before Jon pledged himself to her, I don't even know where this comes from. Dany promised to fight the White Walkers without asking anything in return (an action which squarely put her in the 'good guy' category), Jon playing her to accomplish something which had already been accomplished is not only senseless, paranoic and unnecessary, but it also would then put him firmly in the douchebag category. Dany let him keep the North, only for him to offer it to her twice, and then ultimately turn right around and say lol, kidding?? Really Jonsa peeps? That makes sense to any of you? Why is it so hard to accept that Jon judged her worthy of his allegiance? But of course, that wouldn't work for the antis and this mess is far more appealing.

About the Northern independence though, I've already mentioned it before, but I'll say it again. The whole 'King in the North' concept arose because the Starks would not accept the Lannisters as their king, not after what they had done. Supporting the Baratheons would have been treasonous and dishonourable, and would have embroiled them in a civil war they had no interest in being part of. The main reason however, was that the Northern Lords had grown disillusioned with the Southern kings who did not care about the Northern issues at all and only paid attention to the North when it was in their own interests. Now, with Daenerys pledging herself to defeat the White Walkers, the entire dynamic of the game had changed, the Southern ruler in point, was not a Lannister or a Baratheons, but a Targaryen, who was coming to save the North instead of abandoning them to their plight and, contrary to popular belief, could in fact be trusted. The North Remembers, and it is this that Jon hopes the North will remember once the Walkers have been defeated, that Daenerys is not her father. So, in short, Jon is not playing Dany for Northern independence because it's frankly ridiculous and the alternative (he feels she's a worthy ruler) makes much more sense in this case.

Jon is playing Dany for Sansa's sake, either because he took her advice about not making mistakes seriously or he's deeply in love with her.

This is a very shipper reason, as canonically there has been no love shown from either of them, but I would have still accepted this reason if they hadn't already made it crystal clear that Jon and Sansa don't agree politically. They both have different views regarding politics, and while Jon does ask her for her opinions, he does what he believes he should do anyway. Also, while Sansa has a more grounded worldview which takes into account people's feelings and motivations - rewarding those true to you for their loyalty (Karstarks and Umbers), taking Cersei more seriously, not abandoning the North and literally everything else, Jon's are more idealistic and based on his strong moral code of 'honor' - not taking the castles away from the Karstarks and Umbers, choosing to believe in Tyrion, putting his own life on the line to save his people (by going to Dragonstone). Jon has been consistently portrayed, all throughout this season, as valuing honor above everything - a very strong Ned Stark trait tbh - and not taking Sansa's advice as seriously as he should (which is what she notices as well, and it upsets her). So with this set-up, believing that he is actually playing Dany because of what Sansa has told him is, quite frankly, a stretch, because there is no narrative indication which would make us believe that. This would also explain Sansa's reaction to learning he had bent the knee, she's resigned to it because she knows that though Jon loves and respects her, he still does what he thinks is the right thing to do. Also, Sansa doesn't berate him for doing what he did in the way she would have had she believed he had been repeating Ned's and Robb's mistakes - - > she doesn't believe he's making those mistakes ie bending the knee to Dany is not disastrous (as the antis would have you believe). Sansa is upset because Jon clearly didn't consider asking Sansa's opinion about a very important political decision, and she's upset because she knows that the Northern Lords will not accept this easily, but she doesn't react as if it's the worst thing in the world ever, nor does she act thoughtful, which would have indicated that all is not as it seems. In short, Sansa's reaction is very much expected under the circumstances, which are that Jon doesn't take her as seriously as he should. And given this, it seems unlikely to imagine that he's in cahoots with Sansa and they're taking down the Dragon Queen together (together! 😂)

Every reason for Jon playing Dany would have worked if the narrative had given some sort of suggestion about a possible motive, some indication of Jon treating Sansa's advice seriously, or made Jon give up the North before she pledged to fight the Walkers. And the nail in the coffin for the 'undercover lover' theory was the Dragonpit scene. Nothing would have cast stronger doubts on whether Jon truly loves Dany or not, than him accepting the truce. Despite it being the smart political move, it would have also raised a tiny red flag regarding Jon's true intentions, in my mind at least. Jon basically had nothing to lose by accepting the truce, nothing except for his honor. And that made him refuse! It wasn't just him making a public proclamation that he loves Dany (although it sorta was 😂), it was him being faced with a choice to sacrifice his honor, his word, to get what he wanted, it was him being asked to choose whether he truly was his father's son, it was him being expected by the one who knew the truth to do the dishonourable thing for the greater good. He could have lied and supported Dany later, he could simply have walked away from the battles to come because they didn't directly concern him and his people and let Dany fend for herself. But would it have been the honorable thing to do? Smarter, yes. Wiser, yes. More beneficial to his own people, yes. But honorable? After taking Dany's help to defeat the White Walkers, which let's be honest, are a far greater threat to the North than anywhere else, after taking her armies and dragons to save his home and then turning his back on her when Cersei came at her with fresh forces would have been as far from honor as possible. If Jon has indeed been playing Dany all along, then he should have accepted Cersei's offer - which would not only have placated the Northern Lords later, but would also have served as a potential hint of him playing Dany. But in keeping with the characteristic theme of this season, Jon chooses honor over the alternative more politically savvy choice. He upset everybody, even Dany, with this choice when he could have gone with the easier one, which would have ensured everyone - those at the Dragonpit as well as the Northern lords - would have been happy with the outcome. Everyone would have gotten what they wanted, and the subsequent - if any - reveal of Jon having played Dany all along would have made much more sense to the audience.

But Jon did not make the easy choice. The deliberate inclusion of this scene was only to portray that even when the choice is tough, Jon would choose honor. This is his character, his identity. Also, the callbacks to Ned Stark, aside from foreshadowing that when the time comes to choose, Jon would most likely choose his Stark heritage, remind us that Ned Stark valued honor above all, and the only times he sacrificed it was over love - love for his sister and love for his daughters, which caused him to abandon his honor for their survival. So for Ned Stark's son to betray a woman who trusts, loves, respects and admires him, a woman who's had the same struggles in life as he himself has, a woman who is willing to set aside her own personal goals to help him destroy the threat to his home, for him to betray a woman who has already given him everything he wanted, is actually a betrayal of Ned Stark's legacy and everything he stood for. By going so far as to blatantly lie in Ned Stark's name, Jon would have, in one stroke, destroyed everything that Ned Stark inculcated and symbolised, given what we already know about him having no motive at all for the undercover lover angle. So the callback to Ned was very necessary in highlighting that Jon is truly Ned's son, and throwing away his honor without an ironclad reason is not his character. It's simply not.

Also, this scene was very important because it very starkly set up the contrast between Jon (and even Dany) and Cersei. Remember how all of us were totally skeptical about believing Cersei at all in the first place? Even after the convincing reason of her wanting to protect her to-be-born child, it still was hard to believe that she would actually help them. And why was that?

'When enough people make false promises words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies.'

As the audience, we now know not to trust Cersei. Even when she's being completely sincere, it's hard to trust her because her words have long since stopped meaning anything to us, she's not someone who's promises we'll ever trust, because as Jon said, they are only better and more elaborate lies. And lies won't help us in this fight. So Jon not lying is very important to show us this difference, of how we basically trust Jon's promises and how cautious we are when it comes to Cersei. And as if that's not enough, Cersei's scene with Jaime lays it all completely out, when Jaime is do adamant about sticking to his promise and is struggling to understand how Cersei could have lied to them.

Cersei: I'll say whatever I need to say to ensure the survival of our house

To Cersei, the priority is only her house, her family, to the point that she can't even acknowledge the enormity of the Northern threat. She's focused on ensuring her family's survival, everyone else be damned. And that is categorically shown as an evil thing. Saying whatever is needed to be said, making false promises, basically everything that the Jonsa fans expect from Jon is clearly and emphatically shown to be evil, to be wrong. The whole purpose of the Dragonpit scene is to bring out this contrast between Jon and Cersei - Cersei doesn't care about futile things such as honor and promises when the question is about her own family's survival, Jon however not only cares about the realm, as a whole, but he also highly values honor and takes his promises seriously. We even have Jaime Lannister (my cute nugget 💖) walk away from Cersei, whom he loves above and beyond all, because of his honor. If, after all this, Jon is shown to not have any honor at all, then...

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

COSMIC - S1:E6; Chapter Six, The Monster - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Gender Neutral!Reader Series

𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘠/𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘌𝘭𝘴𝘦𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘏𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘑𝘰𝘺𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘣’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

Joyce and Hopper sat opposite one another at the kitchen table of the Byers' home. The house was cold and hardly lit, copies of newspaper clippings scattered all around the house. One of the only light sources was a dusty chandelier that hung from the kitchen ceiling above the table and their heads, illuminating the several papers.

"Look, we gotta go through this again." Joyce insisted.

"I told you everything that I saw."

"Oh, gosh," she sighs into her hands. "Tell me again."

"Upstairs or downstairs?" Hopper asked.

"Upstairs."

"There was a laboratory. It was where they must do experiments or something, and then there was... well you see, like I said, I got turned around."

Hopper was currently sharing all he had encountered on his rogue mission at Hawkins National Laboratory. Joyce, all the while was hanging on his every word.

"I told you, it was like, I don't know, it wasn't supposed to exist. That whole area, it was abandoned and... forgotten, like it was all some big mistake. Once I found my way back, I saw that... kid's room. That other kid's room, I mean. Like it was actually used, but it didn't even look like a kid's room, neither of them did. It looked like a prison."

Hopper sighed and rubbed the bottom of his palms into his eyes tiredly, is fingers held the lit cigarette inches away from his face as he did so. "If that even makes sense,"

"Well," Joyce began, trying to get to the bottom of this never ending mystery. "So why would you think it was a kid's room, then?"

"Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was a drawing, there was a stuffed animal--"

Joyce interrupted the man quickly. "Y-You didn't say there was a drawing."

"Yeah, there was a drawing of a... an adult and a child. It said 'Eleven' on it."

"Was it good?" Joyce pressed.

"It was a kid's drawing, Joyce. It was stick figures."

Joyce had a knowing look on her face as she stood up with a sigh, retrieving a piece of crinkled line paper and slammed it down on the table for Hopper to see.

She pointed to the detailed drawing as she sat back down.

"Wasn't Will." She stated confidently, shakily bringing the cigarette back up to her lips.

Hopper examined the drawing and everything seemed to click. He returned his gaze to the anxious mother. Hopper quickly put out his cigarette in the ashtray and made a beeline for the coffee table.

"Earl..." he muttered, as he made his way into the living room. Joyce, who had abandoned her cigarette, was right on his heels.

"The night that Benny died, Earl said he saw some kid with a shaved head with Benny," Hopper and Joyce took a seat beside one another on the living room couch, Hopper's eyes fixed on the several news clippings splayed along the wooden coffee table. "Now, I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe..."

The man began shifting through the papers, and Joyce spoke up.

"Wait... Maybe, it wasn't?"

Hopper pulled the article he had been looking for and pointed to the fuzzy photograph of the woman in the article.

"Look... this woman, Terry Ives, she claims to have lost her daughter, Jane. She sued Brenner, she sued the government... Now, the claims came to nothing, but what if... I mean, what if this whole time I've been... I've been looking for Will... I've been chasing after some other kid?"

||𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

Everything is a mess.

Will is still missing, the party is falling apart, Mike and Lucas are still angsty messes that won't speak to one another, and now, El left us. She probably thinks I hate her.

'But I don't! I was just scared'

(Ok but like,,,, who else ships El and reader cause damn I've been giving myself feels lately, dang)

'We need to fix this'

I sigh and sit up from my bed and make my my way to Dustin's room.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"I just... I can't believe she didn't come back." Mike sighed.

Dustin and I agreed we needed to talk some sense into the rest of the party. So we got our bikes and made our way to Mike's. Dustin was standing opposite Mike while I currently occupied one of the D&D chairs I had pulled up. Mike was worriedly pacing the floor in front of us.

"She's gotta be close." Dustin offered.

"She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us. She didn't betray us."

"Mike, calm down."

Mike only ignored Dustin and kept talking, more to himself than anybody it seemed.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should've done that."

"Mike, this isn't your fault." Dustin said.

"Yeah, it's Lucas'."

"It wasn't his fault, either." Dustin countered softly.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Mike stopped in his tracks. He looked at my brother dumbfounded and took a few steps in his direction. "It wasn't his fault?"

"No."

"So you're saying he wasn't way out of line?"

"Totally, but so were you!"

"What?"

"And so was Eleven."

"That's ridiculous! Y/n, tell him he's being ridiculous!"

Very calmly, I stood up with my arms crossed and stood next to my brother, and sighed, eyes fixed on Mike. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dustin is absolutely right."

Mike seemed even more furious. "Oh, give me a break!"

Dustin snapped at these words and stormed up to Mike. "No, Mike, you give me a break! All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes! Y/n and I were the only reasonable ones! But the bottom line is... you pushed first. And you know the rules. You draw first blood..."

"No! No way! I'm not shaking his hand."

"You're shaking his hand." I press, stepping forward.

He was sure to make eye contact with me over Dustin's shoulder as he spoke. "No, I'm not."

So I strode toward him and gave him a slight glare.

"This isn't a discussion. This is the rule of law. Obey or be banished from the party. Do you wanna be banished?" I asked firmly.

Mike crossed his arms and pouted before speaking up meekly. "No."

"Good!" I chirp, my face beaming as if we hadn't just been fighting which seem to only terrify him more.

I all but skipped over to the chair grabbing my coat, Dustin following my actions.

"Where are we going?" Mike asked with a hint of frustration.

"Where do you think?" Dustin asked as he put his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

"We're going to get Lucas." I finished, straightening my jacket then looked back to Mike.

My face softened and I tilted my head slightly. "And then we're gonna find Eleven."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

The three of us stood on Lucas's porch and I rang the doorbell. We stood waiting until the door swung open and Lucas stood there glaring at all three of us, but mostly Mike.

"What do you want?" He spit, resting his hands in his pockets.

There was brief silence which was then interrupted by a muffled smack of Dustin hitting Mike in the arm.

Mike sighed softly and looked to Lucas, clearly hating every second of this.

"I drew first blood, so..." he extended his hand for Lucas to shake but Lucas didn't move.

Great. Of course nobody was going to make anything easy. Why would they?

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Somehow I had convinced Lucas to let us all in and now, we all stood in the middle of his living room as he paced silently across the floor considering Mike's offer. He finally stopped and stared at the three of us.

"Okay, I'll shake."

Mike sighed what I barely made out to be a "finally" as he extended his arm out once more. Dustin and I perked up, that was until Lucas continued.

"On one condition. We forget the weirdo and go straight to the gate." He finished, arms crossed defiant.

"Then the deal's off." Mike barked.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"No, no, not fine! Guys seriously?" Dustin yelled, as I threw my head back frustrated.

Dustin forced Mike to face him as he spoke. "Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass?"

Lucas and Mike shared a confused glance.

Dustin seemed shocked and offended that they had no recollection and continued.

"We couldn't agree on what path to take, so we all split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!"

"Yeah, I agree. But this is the party, right here in this room."

"El is one of us now."

"Um, no, she's not. Not even close! Never will be. She's a liar, a traitor--"

"She was just trying to keep us safe! She didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident!"

"An accident?"

"All right, accident or not... admit it, it was a little awesome." Dustin said.

"Awesome?"

"Yeah, she threw you in the air with her mind!"

"I could have been killed!"

"Would everybody just shut up for one second, please!" I snap.

Everybody looks to me, a shocked expression on their faces.

I step forward and begin my long awaited  rant.

"I am sick of your attitude." I point at Lucas. "I am sick of your whining." I point to Mike. "I am sick of all three of you bickering," I gesture to all of them. "I love you guys and I can't thank you enough for taking me in and including me, know that, but GOD I am tired of being stuck listening to you boys argue about every little thing!"

I myself began pacing, my voice continuously rising. "I'm sick of putting up with all your petty arguing when we should be looking for Will only to come home at the end of the day, having found NOTHING and crying my eyes out because the only person who never gave a shit about who started what is missing and probably dead!"

I stopped pacing and looked to the boys who were all silent. I sighed and lowered my voice. "Lucas, you're right. You could have been killed. Which is exactly why we need her. She is more powerful than all of us combined."

"Y/n's right. Do you seriously wanna fight the Demogorgon with your wrist rocket?" Mike said, anger still in his voice. "That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader. We're no use to Will if we're dead."

Lucas looked torn for a moment, but then he shook his head and pointed at the three of us. There was disappointment in his voice. "If you three wanna waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, 'cause I'm not spending my time on her anymore. No way!"

I sighed, putting my face in my hands. Lucas continued.

"I'm going to the gate. I'm going to find Will."

Lucas shoved the boys aside and stormed off, leaving the three of us alone in more ways than one.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

S.T REWRITE -S1:E6; Chapter Six, The Monster - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

With Eleven gone, Y/n and Dustin struggle to keep the party together. Elsewhere, Hopper and Joyce uncover the truth about the lab’s many experiments.

||3rd Person POV||

Joyce and Hopper sat opposite one another at the kitchen table of the Byers' home. The house was cold and hardly lit, copies of newspaper clippings scattered all around the house. One of the only light sources was a dusty light that hung from the kitchen ceiling above the table and their heads, illuminating the several papers.

"Look, we gotta go through this again." Joyce insisted.

"I told you everything that I saw."

"Oh, gosh. Tell me again."

"Upstairs or downstairs?" Hopper asked.

"Upstairs."

"There was a laboratory. It was where they must do experiments or something, and then there was... well you see like I said, I got turned around."

Hopper was currently sharing all he had encountered on his rogue mission at Hawkins National Laboratory. Joyce, all the while was hanging on his every word.

"I told you, it was like, I don't know, it wasn't supposed to exist. That whole area, it was abandoned and... forgotten, like it was all some big mistake. Once I found my way back, I saw that... kid's room. That other kid's room, I mean. Like it was actually used, but it didn't even look like a kid's room, neither of them, it looked like a prison."

Hopper sighed and rubbed the bottom of his palms into his eyes tiredly, is fingers held the lit cigarette inches away from his face as he did so. "If that even makes sense,"

"Well," Joyce began, trying to get to the bottom of this never ending mystery. "So why would you think it was a kid's room, then?"

"Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was a drawing, there was a stuffed animal--"

Joyce interrupted the man quickly. "Y-You didn't say there was a drawing."

"Yeah, there was a drawing of a... an adult and a child. It said 'Eleven' on it."

"Was it good?" Joyce pressed.

"It was a kid's drawing, Joyce. It was stick figures."

Joyce had a knowing look on her face as she stood up with a sigh, retrieving a piece of crinkled line paper and slammed it down on the table for Hopper to see.

She pointed to the detailed drawing as she sat back down.

"Wasn't Will." She stated confidently, shakily bringing the cigarette back up to her lips.

Hopper examined the drawing and everything seemed to click. He returned his gaze to the anxious mother. Hopper quickly put out his cigarette in the ashtray and made a beeline for the coffee table.

"Earl..." he muttered, as he made his way into the living room. Joyce, who had abandoned her cigarette, was right on his heels.

"The night that Benny died, Earl said he saw some kid with a shaved head with Benny," Hopper and Joyce took a seat beside one another on the living room couch, Hopper's eyes fixed on the several news clippings splayed along the wooden coffee table. "Now, I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe..."

The man began sifting through the papers, and Joyce spoke up.

"Wait... Maybe, it wasn't?"

Hopper pulled the article he had been looking for and pointed to the fuzzy photograph of the woman in the article.

"Look... this woman, Terry Ives, she claims to have lost her daughter, Jane. She sued Brenner, she sued the government... Now, the claims came to nothing, but what if... I mean, what if this whole time I've been... I've been looking for Will... I've been chasing after some other kid?"

||Reader's POV||

Everything is a mess.

Will is still missing, the party is falling apart, Mike and Lucas are still angsty messes that won't speak to one another, and now, El left us. She probably thinks I hate her.

'But I don't! I was just scared'

(Ok but like,,,, who else ships El and reader cause damn I've been giving myself feels lately, dang)

'We need to fix this'

I sigh and sit up from my bed and make my way to Dustin's room.

+++

"I just... I can't believe she didn't come back." Mike sighed.

Dustin and I agreed we needed to talk some sense into the boys. So we got our bikes and made our way to Mike's. Dustin was standing opposite Mike while I currently occupied one of the DnD chairs I had pulled up. Mike was worriedly pacing the floor in front of us.

"She's gotta be close." Dustin offered.

"She said it wasn't safe. She just messed up the compasses because she wanted to protect us. She didn't betray us."

"Mike, calm down."

Mike only ignored Dustin and kept talking, more to himself than anybody it seemed.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her. I never should've done that."

"Mike, this isn't your fault." Dustin said.

"Yeah, it's Lucas'."

"It wasn't his fault, either." Dustin replied softly.

For the first time in what felt like ages, Mike stopped in his tracks. He looked at my brother dumbfounded and took a few steps in his direction. "It wasn't his fault?"

"No."

"So you're saying he wasn't way out of line?"

"Totally, but so were you!"

"What?"

"And so was Eleven."

"That's ridiculous! [Y/N], tell him he's being ridiculous!"

Very calmly, I stood up with my arms crossed and stood next to my brother, and sighed, eyes fixed on Mike. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dustin is absolutely right."

Mike seemed even more furious. "Oh, give me a break!"

Dustin snapped at these words and stormed up to Mike. "No, Mike, you give me a break! All three of you were being a bunch of little assholes! [Y/N] and I were the only reasonable ones! But the bottom line is... you pushed first. And you know the rules. You draw first blood..."

"No! No way! I'm not shaking his hand."

"You're shaking his hand." I press stepping forward.

He was sure to make eye contact with me over Dustin shoulder as he spoke. "No, I'm not."

So I strode toward him and gave him a slight glare.

"This isn't a discussion. This is the rule of law. Obey or be banished from the party. Do you wanna be banished?" I asked firmly.

Mike crossed his arms and pouted before speaking up meekly. "No."

"Good!" I chirp, my face beaming as if we hadn't just been fighting which seem to only terrify him more.

I all but skipped over to the chair grabbing my coat, Dustin following my actions.

"Where are we going?" Mike asked with a hint of frustration.

"Where do you think?" Dustin asked as he put his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

"We're going to get Lucas." I finished straightening my jacket then looked back to Mike.

My face softened and I tilted my head slightly. "And then we're gonna find Eleven."

+++

The three of us stood on Lucas's porch and I rang the doorbell. We stood waiting until the door swung open and Lucas stood there glaring at all three of us, but mostly Mike.

"What do you want?" He spits, resting his hands in his pockets.

There was brief silence which was then interrupted by a muffled smack of Dustin hitting Mike in the arm.

Mike sighed softly and looked to Lucas, clearly hating every second of this.

"I drew first blood, so..." he extended his hand for Lucas to shake but Lucas didn't move.

Somehow I had convinced Lucas to let us all in and now, we all stood in the middle of his living room as he paced silently across the floor considering Mike's offer. He finally stopped and stared at the three of us.

"Okay, I'll shake."

Mike sighed what I barely made out to be a "finally" as he extended his arm out once more. Dustin and I perked up, that was until Lucas continued.

"On one condition. We forget the weirdo and go straight to the gate." He finished, arms crossed defiantly.

"Then the deal's off." Mike barked.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"No, no, not fine! Guys seriously?" Dustin yelled as I threw my head back frustrated.

Dustin forced Mike to face him as he spoke. "Do you even remember what happened on the Bloodstone Pass?"

Lucas and Mike shared a confused glance.

Dustin seemed shocked and offended that they had no recollection and continued.

"We couldn't agree on what path to take, so we all split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one. And it all went to shit. And we were all disabled! So we stick together, no matter what!"

"Yeah, I agree. But this is the party, right here in this room."

"El is one of us now."

"Um, no, she's not. Not even close! Never will be. She's a liar, a traitor--"

"She was just trying to keep us safe! She didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident!"

"An accident?"

"All right, accident or not... admit it, it was a little awesome." Dustin said.

"Awesome?"

"Yeah, she threw you in the air with her mind!"

"I could have been killed!"

"Would everybody just shut up for one second please!" I snap.

Everybody looks to me, a worried and shocked expression on their faces.

I step forward and begin ranting to the boys.

"I am sick of your attitude." I point at Lucas. "I am sick of your whining." I point to Mike. "I am sick of all three of you bickering," I gesture to all of them. "I love you guys and I can't thank you enough for taking me in and including me, know that, but GOD I am getting tired of being stuck listening to you boys argue about every little thing!"

I myself began pacing, my voice continuously rising. "I'm sick of putting up with all your petty arguing when we should be looking for Will only to come home at the end of the day, having found NOTHING and crying my eyes out because the only person who never gave a shit about who started what is missing and probably dead!"

I stopped pacing and looked to the boys who were all silent. I sighed and lowered my voice. "Lucas, you're right. You could have been killed. Which is exactly why we need her. She is more powerful than all of us combined."

"[Y/N]'s right. Do you seriously wanna fight the Demogorgon with your wrist rocket?" Mike said, anger still in his voice. "That's like R2-D2 going to fight Darth Vader. We're no use to Will if we're dead."

Lucas looked torn for a moment, but then he shook his head and pointed at the three of us. There was disappointment in his voice. "If you three wanna waste your time looking for a traitor, go ahead, 'cause I'm not spending my time on her anymore. No way!"

I sighed, putting my face in my hands. Lucas continued.

"I'm going to the gate. I'm going to find Will."

Lucas shoved the boys aside and stormed off, leaving the three of us alone in more ways than one.

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(apologies the tag list was not posted originally. It slipped my mind. Sorry lovelies! <3)

Tag List: @fuckwaad @aimee-lucass

DM me if you want to be added!